


Translation Error

by RoamingRoveon



Series: Love Language [2]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: Angst, Communication Issues, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Friendship, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Lesbians, Romance, We're riding this Pain Train to Hurtsville, rocky relationships, sappholopods
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:48:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22758820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoamingRoveon/pseuds/RoamingRoveon
Summary: [Sequel to Love Language]With almost two whole years at her back, Agent 3 has finally returned to Inkopolis. To her home, her family and her friends, to Marie.What she failed to account for, was the fact that she may not be able to repair the damage she left behind her - and the gaps in her memory that no one seems willing to fill for her don't do her any favors, either.
Relationships: Agent 3/Marie (Splatoon), Marina/Pearl (Splatoon)
Series: Love Language [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1636246
Comments: 88
Kudos: 76





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello naughty Squid kids, it's sequel time!
> 
> Thank you for your patience. This story will update, hopefully, every two weeks. I hope you're all as excited as I am!

_ Prologue _

She knew the second the odd device started vibrating in her pocket that something was very, very wrong. 

Granted, everything about this place screamed ‘wrong’ from the second she stepped foot inside. There was a different sort of vibe hanging in the stale air, something uncomfortable that made her skin crawl, made her paranoid to turn each corner. The odd pools of swirling ink made her stomach churn, teal and yellow and green so toxic-looking that every survival instinct she had forced her away from it - the smell was something else entirely, pungent and burning her nose. 

Say nothing about the Octarians patrolling the place, their colors just as sickly as the ink and their movements heavy. Mindless. 

If she’d read the sign correctly, it was called Kamabo Corp, and she was still trying to dig for information on just what they did there when the distress signal came through.

Agent 3 took off in the direction that felt right - her gut hadn’t steered her wrong yet. The vibrations grew stronger the further down she went, until she was standing on the edge of a platform staring down into darkness. 

When her eyes adjusted, it sure looked like a glass floor. It could be someone else’s ceiling.

It could also have been a plummet to her death, but hey, pragmatism had never been her strong point.

Unsure just how long she had to make the decision, the inkling took a deep breath and leapt off of the platform before she could second guess it. It was a longer fall than she anticipated, but it didn’t take long for her worn-out hero boots to collide with the glass below. It shattered (thankfully), giving way to a long tunnel that, for half an instant, she thought was a train station. 

With a giant blender squarely in the middle of the platform, and what seemed to be an octoling and her commanding officer trapped inside. 

Directly beneath her trajectory. 

On the upside, it was a smooth transition from dropping through the ceiling to colliding with the blender. The cracks and splintering sounds were like music to her ears, and she definitely saw Cuttlefish and the octoling duck and roll out of the way. 

However. 

She failed to account for the density of the lid, which flew off the instant the glass shattered and smacked into the side of her head so hard it made her ears ring. Knocked off balance, she missed her landing - what was meant to be a graceful roll to break her fall wound up with her dropping onto the cement, heavy and painful, her already-bruised head cracking against the ground.

Agent 3’s vision swam when she tried to open her eyes, a low groan rising in her throat. She became vaguely aware of someone trying to speak to her, the voice warped in her disorientation, and she tried to lift her head to make out the words. For one tiny, fleeting instant, it sounded familiar in a way that made her chest tighten, made her stomach twist pleasantly. 

“Marie…?” She thought she said, but her brain and tongue didn’t seem to make the necessary connection. 

The inkling’s head fell back against the concrete and her vision went black.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Home,  
> Let me come home.  
> Home is whenever I'm with you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo since the prologue was rudely short, chapter 1 goes up today instead of next week! Happy Sunday!
> 
> I can't believe how much attention this has already gotten?? That's nuts. Thank you guys so much for all your support.
> 
> It should be mentioned this story is rated for possible suggestive themes, mentions of violence, etc. Just in case.

Since the second he first heard the Calamari Inkantation, Percy had idolized the Squid Sisters. The way that Callie and Marie turned a small town tune into a chart-topping hit was inspiring to say the very least - and their story was nothing to sneeze at either. Two cousins from Calamari County starting out as no one and reaching for the stars, climbing to the top. Chasing dreams. 

He used to listen to their tracks until the CDs wore out. He knew all the words to every song. They got him through good times and rainy days, provided background music for him while he sat in his room folding little paper stars. Wishes that he dropped into jars, reassured by the Squid Sisters that someday they may very well come true. 

Most inklings leave home the instant they turn 14, but Percy waited an extra year before hopping the train into the sprawling city of Inkopolis. He had big dreams of turf wars, making friends, forming a team and forging bonds strong enough to last him a lifetime - adventures exploring the city, staying as fresh as he could, and maybe he would even get to meet Off the Hook!

Percy had to stop and wipe the lenses of his glasses with his shirt, though, when he made it into Inkopolis Square. Because getting close to Deca Tower, near a storm drain, he could have  _ sworn  _ he caught a glimpse of an inkling who looked painfully familiar. The second she locked eyes with him, he froze in place, cherry high tops rooted to the pavement - but the green parasol swirled in her hands, sweeping over her face before she disappeared through the grate.

Unsure what course to take, bright green eyes flickered left and right to be sure no one else saw that. It didn’t seem to draw anyone’s attention, inklings busy chatting with their friends on the bench or hanging out near the news studio. Was he seeing things? Did one of his idols really just hang around in Inkopolis Square, and no one noticed?

Only one way to find out.

Nearly two months later, Percy decided that diving into that drain may have just been the best thing to ever happen to him. He was allowed a solid five minutes to be completely star struck, in awe of the fact that  _ Marie  _ of the  _ Squid Sisters  _ had noticed him. Not only that, but that she believed in him to help her out. He got the whole story once the excitement ebbed just a bit - she needed his help to rescue the Great Zapfish! And with Agent 3 missing in action, it was all up to him. It was a total dream come true. 

“ _ Alright, Agent 4, _ ” Marie’s voice, growing more familiar by the day, crackled over the headset. “ _ This one’s gonna be a little tricky. Keep your eye on the ball, okay? _ ”

Percy absolutely beamed as he adjusted his grip on the inkbrush Sheldon was loaning him. “You got it, boss!” 

He stepped into his next challenge as eagerly as he had every one before it, determination clear in the smile on his face.

\---

Eighteen months.

Absolutely no words could ever describe how it felt to see the sun after eighteen entire months. Seeing how the sky bled from blazing orange into reds and purples and blues - the real sky, nothing projected onto the inside of artificial domes. To feel the warmth on her face, though a little too intense on one side - watching as it sunk down into the waves of an endless ocean. In the moments when she felt she’d be stuck wandering those underground tunnels forever, these were the things she kept in mind to help lead her home.

An entire year and a half and Agent 3 had never been more homesick than in that moment, staring out toward the skyline of Inkopolis. She recognized the wriggling form of the Great Zapfish in the distance, making its rounds between skyscrapers and tall apartment buildings, but from that far away there weren’t many other details she could pick out. It didn’t matter - she knew where she was going, she knew it was the only place she wanted to be. 

“Do ya wanna get dropped off anywhere in particular?” 

Pearl caught her zoning out and she jerked her head in the shorter girl’s direction, taking a bit longer to process the question than usual. She was so tired. So, so tired. The kind of exhaustion that runs bone-deep, that kept her from thinking about things like underground trains. Like best friends missing in action, or last words spoken - or unspoken - to loved ones. 

She shrugged and Pearl shrugged back, flowing back into whatever conversation she was having with Cap’n Cuttlefish. It didn’t seem like either of them were too keen on talking to her. Come to think of it, no one had really spoken to her at all since they departed from a thoroughly-wrecked statue in the middle of the ocean. She minded the silence a little - she hadn’t had anyone to talk to in over a year - but she wasn’t about to speak out against it. 

The inkling tugged the headset off of her ears with a deep, weary sigh as the helicopter brought them closer to the city. Her mind was already buzzing with a growing list of things she needed to do when they touched down - check in with her brother, take a bath, sleep for a million years (roughly). 

Most importantly, she needed to see Marie. 

“As close to Inkopolis Plaza as you can get,” Agent 3 said at last. 

She took shelter away from the cross breeze, flowing through the open doors of the chopper on either side. In the back corner the inkling settled onto a plush loveseat instead - the rush of wind against her face was nothing short of agonizing. While there had been no opportunity to check her reflection, she wasn’t sure she wanted to - the entire right side of her face felt raw, stretched too tightly, prickling constantly even when she didn’t touch it. When she had initially reached up to brush her fingertips across the area, curious to know what on earth was causing her so much pain when she woke up, even the slightest pressure stung far more than it should have. 

Marina had cautiously suggested bandaging it up, but when she tried to apply any kind of gauze or cloth, it only aggravated the pain. So, they left it to the open air, and left the inkling to speculate just what it was.

It made her stomach twist to consider what had happened. It was the first time she realized that she  _ didn’t  _ know, that she had absolutely no recollection of the stretch of time after that giant blender had been destroyed. 

Maybe she was too tired to think about it at the time. Agent 3 dropped her hand away from her face quickly, curled up on the couch and wrapped her arms around her chest like she could protect herself from the discomfort settling in. She didn’t get the nap she wanted - the trip to Inkopolis was a short one, and before she knew it, Cap’n Cuttlefish was shaking her shoulder gently to rouse her. 

“Land ho, Agent 3!” He announced like it was the best news they’d heard in months.

Although they had brought along a veritable cavalry of ‘copters, they managed to arrive discreetly - Agent 3 wasn’t familiar with the area surrounding the landing pad, brow furrowing as she peered around and reached up to rub at her eye. She stopped just short of it when squinting left a tingling sensation spreading across her skin. 

That was going to take some getting used to. 

They disembarked with very little fanfare, Pearl dismissing them after a brief rap battle with Cap’n Cuttlefish and Marina approaching the two NSS agents with a friendly - if perhaps a bit nervous - smile on her face. 

“If you need anything at all, you can always reach us,” she assured, her flawless Inklish catching Agent 3 just a little off guard. Maybe that was presumptuous of her. “Agent 8, are you sure you don’t need a place to stay?”

Agent 8 hadn’t said a word the entire trip back to Inkopolis. In fact, Agent 3 wasn’t sure she’d heard his voice at all since they met. He kept lining her up in his sights though, eyes like quicksilver staring at her as though he were sizing her up. Figuring out how to approach her, or maybe how to avoid her. When Marina addressed him, he simply shook his head. 

“I am having no troubles,” he spoke at last, his voice heavy in accented Inklish. “But thank you.” 

Marina looked unsure, but she didn’t press him further. “Alright, just let us know!” Her turquoise eyes gave away her concern, training on Agent 3 for another beat. Holding her attention there, like she was searching for an answer to a question she hadn’t asked. 

The inkling understood. She knew truths about Marina that very few others were privy to, and it was sensitive information to say the least. All she could do was nod once, acknowledge, reassure that her lips were sealed. It was enough to earn a somewhat relieved, if still mildly concerned, smile. 

“C’mon, ‘Rina, let’s go! We gotta do a show in half an hour!” Pearl shouted from the helicopter, catching her partner’s attention. 

“Coming!” The octoling called back. “Take care, guys!” With a small smile and a wave, she took off back toward the chopper. 

Agent 3 decided to make herself scarce before the blades could whir back to life, anticipating the wind and not really wanting to be around to find out how it felt. Maybe she should have gotten the octoling’s number, or said goodbye, but instead she took off toward the back wall and vaulted over it with practiced ease. 

The sun had already gone down by the time she made it out of twisting back alleys that were unfamiliar to her, into the heart of Inkopolis Plaza. Despite the dark sky above, the bright lights of Deca Tower and the surrounding shops kept the place illuminated. Agent 3 wanted to take a moment to admire, to revel in being back in the city at long last, but she didn’t have time.

Besides, that train of thought might lead her down worse tracks - how her mission had been to find her best friend, how she had come back empty-handed, how she had likely taken a Luna Blaster to every weak spot of the life she’d built up here. Metaphorically.

She couldn’t waste any energy on that right then. She had places to be. 

Pulling the hood of her jacket up over her head - a bit awkwardly, fumbling past her busted headphones - she followed her feet down a familiar path, to an apartment she still had a key to. 

Home. 

She could only hope it was  _ still  _ home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOW it will be 2 weeks until the next update. Please enjoy my babies.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jinx puts off the one thing she wants to do the most.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello fellow squid kids what is up! It's update day! 
> 
> Please enjoy that tasty cromch of new chapter.

Marie wasn’t sure what drew her back to Octo Canyon all the time. Sure, it was a peaceful retreat from the bustling square above, but Octavio was no longer a threat (again). The domes had been cleared out by Agent 4, for the most part, and he certainly didn’t run recon very often - he didn’t much need to. Maybe watching their ruthless tyrant get his butt whooped for a second time scared the octarians back into their holes. 

She supposed it boiled down to that first point: the calm. The wind whistled through the floating rocks and spires, just enough to make the place less eerie, and she liked to rest outside of Cuttlefish Cabin and watch the clouds roll by. Recalibrate, especially toward the end of the week when her train of thought had nearly driven off the tracks. 

Callie was home. That was one weight off of her shoulders, and she held onto the sense of accomplishment that came with it - she was so proud of Agent 4, and Sheldon too. The rescue had been a valiant one and Marie had watched Percy roast DJ Octavio with smug satisfaction. 

It didn’t change the fact that something was still missing. Someone she wasn’t sure if she should be mourning or not - someone who might not even be alive. She spent too much time ruminating on that, more than she thought Jinx--  _ Agent 3 _ deserved after the mess she’d left behind her. Before Callie’s return, she’d even started to let herself move away from it, put it behind her. 

Then her beloved cousin had to start in with the curious chirps of ‘where’s your girlfriend?’ Needless to say, that had launched her right back into indignant and frustrated about the entire situation.

How long after a disappearance was it appropriate to pronounce someone dead?

Marie found herself sitting beneath the stars as they blinked into view that night, thinking in circles when she heard the familiar wet sound of someone entering the storm drain. With a deep sigh, she turned her attention toward the noise, expecting Callie or Percy to be paying her a visit - she sat up straight immediately at the old squid who stood there waving his cane at her. Her mouth very nearly dropped open in disbelief and she was on her feet in the next second, stepping closer.

“ _ Gramps _ ?!” 

Sure enough, Craig Cuttlefish hobbled forward in that cod-awful old timey jacket of his, a bright smile hidden beneath his beard. “Hey, Squiddo! Good t’see ya!” 

Marie was sweeping in and pulling him into a hug before he could reach her. Squeezing him gently, but close enough to garner comfort from the safety of her grandfather’s arms. It had been so long - so, so long. He disappeared when Agent 3 did, shortly after hearing of Callie’s kidnapping. 

Without warning, just like Agent 3. 

Drawing back from the hug, Marie found her relief shifting over into irritation. “Where in the world have you  _ been _ ?” She started in, ready to scold the old man for worrying her. The last thing she had needed back then was for the entirety of her family to disappear, but that was what she got - she could be forgiven for being bitter about it. “You didn’t call me - you didn’t say anything. For all I knew, you were--” ‘Dead.’ She wanted to say ‘dead.’ She couldn’t bring herself to. 

With his precious granddaughter folding her arms and watching him expectantly, the Captain placed both hands on his cane and tapped the old bamboozler against the ground. “I left a postcard - didn’t ya get it, squirt?” He asked like he’d done nothing wrong. “I told ya, Agent 3 and I were on an - uh - extended vacation to the cape!” 

_ Agent 3 and I. _ So J-- Agent 3 had been with him the whole time, and neither one of them thought to tell her? 

Marie pursed her lips tightly. She didn’t recall finding a postcard, letter, or anything like that. “You absolutely were not,” she rolled her eyes, too tired to deal with him trying to baby her. To spare her feelings. “Don’t lie to me, Gramps.” 

Cuttlefish’s shoulders sagged a bit as he deflated, a heavy sigh slipping out. He waved a hand, gesturing for her to follow him as he creaked and cracked his elderly body over to sit down. “No, we weren’t,” he confessed while Marie settled in beside him, her shoulders rigid while she waited for what would hopefully be a good explanation. “There was a top secret mission, y’see…”

\---

It still smelled the same. 

Agent 3 couldn’t describe it with words, just feelings - it felt like warmth, like the familiarity of loved ones gathering during the holidays. Like the comfort of curling up on the couch during a rainy day, with a cup of tea in a cozy sweater. She closed the door behind her and took a deep breath, filling her lungs with what may as well have been the first air she’d taken in since she got back to the surface. 

Her knees felt weak beneath her and she had to lean back against the door just to keep herself upright. Heavy emotion rose in the back of her throat and nearly brought her to tears before she swallowed it down again, wanting that warmth to never leave her. Just this, she just wanted this - to enjoy this for another minute. 

She kicked off her hero boots like she lived there, like she had never left, setting them neatly beside the door. Considering it, and then knocking one onto its side haphazardly - much better. When she was positive her legs worked, she unzipped her jacket and slipped her arms out of it, stepping into the living room. Chucking it over the back of the couch, taking off her headphones, dropping those onto the cushions - generally making herself at home. 

It felt normal. It felt  _ good _ . 

It felt like she might just be  _ Jinx  _ again. 

The inkling passed by Callie’s old room without even considering the fact that it was, in fact, Callie’s room - she needed comfort, not guilt, not right then. She didn’t even know if she could process that kind of weight. Instead, she headed directly for Marie’s door, easing it open and letting another wave of emotion crash over her while she stepped inside and turned on the light - everything was still arranged the same, though Marie was a creature of habit so she kind of expected that. The bed was half-made, blankets pulled up but not tucked in. There was that inexplicable himalayan salt lamp on the nightstand, she still had no idea where that thing came from.

It was almost surreal, going about her old routine. Jinx went to the dresser, tugged open the bottom drawer and found some of her clothes still there. She could hardly believe that Marie kept them all this time, maybe she’d just forgotten about them? Whatever the case, it made her life easier. She pulled out a pair of her favorite leggings and an Octoking HK jersey, stripping out of her (admittedly smelly) clothes to change. 

She had to be extra careful pulling the shirt on over her head. Almost like it was a side thought, she rummaged around in the closet until her fingers closed around the soft fabric of a well-loved green hoodie - she tugged it free from the hanger and shoved her hands into the sleeves, pulling it close around her and pressing cuff of one sleeve to her nose. 

There was Marie, right where she always was, her scent written into each stitch.

Jinx flopped onto the bed and promptly started twisting herself up in the blankets. Shifting around, making an absolute mess of them, pulling down the pillow and wrapping her arms around it tightly. She buried her nose into it, took the deepest breath she could manage, and let the tension slide out of her on the exhale. 

For the first time in eighteen whole months, she was comfortable enough to get some much-needed rest. She dug her nails into the pillow, subconsciously trying to anchor herself to that place and time. 

The inkling was barely conscious when the sound of the front door closing startled her back awake. She scrambled to untangle herself from the nest she’d made, kicking at the blankets and wriggling until she unceremoniously rolled off of the bed and hit the floor with a dull ‘thud.’ Cursing under her breath over the loud drumbeat of her hearts, Jinx curled her toes into the carpet for leverage and ran for the door. 

There was only one person it could be, and she had so much to say, so much she needed to talk about--

Brown eyes locked with shining amber and a shocked expression that matched her own, but Marie would never wear pink. 

Callie stared at her with wide eyes, like she had seen a ghost, and she stood frozen in place. “Jinx…?” She asked as though her friend would disappear if she said her name too loudly.

It was the first time she’d heard her name - her  _ real  _ name - spoken in almost two years, and she couldn’t have imagined anyone else saying it. It was like a longing ache in her heart was finally being given a chance to heal, and the slow smile that grew on her friend’s face mirrored with relief.

Jinx breathed the other inkling’s name as though it were the answer to all of her woes. “ _ Callie. _ ” 

They met in the middle and threw arms around each other, Jinx careful not to squish the right side of her face unnecessarily. She rested her left cheek against Callie’s shoulder, curling her fingers into the bright pink fabric of her hoodie, and held on tight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update in two weeks, Animal Crossing Pending--


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You'll see I am no criminal, I'm down on both bad knees -   
> I'm too much of a coward to admit when I'm in need.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! I know it's a weird update day, but since Animal Crossing comes out on Friday, I thought I'd release the chapter a little early. 
> 
> Just a little bit of best friends catching up. I hope you enjoy!

It had never been strange for Callie and Jinx to curl up on the couch together and chat. They were always close, and they didn’t care about silly things like ‘physical boundaries’ - the younger girl stretched out and her companion laid on top of her, head resting on Jinx’s chest to listen to the calming drum of her hearts beating. It was all so blissfully normal, they could both forget for a moment that the last year and a half had been… 

...Bad.

Understating things made them easier to deal with, too. 

Jinx ran her fingertips idly up and down Callie’s arm as she talked, listening with the focus of someone who didn’t want to tell her own stories. Who still wasn’t used to using her voice again, and didn’t have anything interesting to say anyway. 

“I still can’t believe you’re here,” the actress sounded so relieved, turning to press her face squarely into Jinx’s chest. “When I got back and Marie told me you were missing, we assumed the worst.” Her voice muffled into the fabric. 

A low hum reverberated in Jinx’s throat as she grimaced, resting her head against the arm of the couch. She didn’t say anything, the niggling of guilt in the back of her mind growing more prevalent despite her attempts to ignore it. It occurred to her on more than one occasion that not texting or calling was a bad move, and she was lucky she hadn’t been screamed at yet - then again, she didn’t have service underground. It was as good an excuse as any.

Her phone was still tucked into the pocket of her hero jacket, now that she thought about it. The battery ran dry a month ago. 

“I stopped to see Ame,” Callie went on, filling the silence with practiced ease. “He’s been really worried. You weren’t in touch with him, either?” 

No, she wasn’t. Jinx fixed her gaze onto a spot on the ceiling, knowing that the list of her transgressions would only grow the more they talked about this. Her jaw tightened a bit and she swallowed down the growing bundle of nerves in her throat, focusing on Callie’s weight draped over her - she imagined this was what a weighted anxiety blanket felt like, and the pressure was definitely keeping the worst of the nasty feelings at bay. 

Maybe if she could just stay right there on the couch with her best friend stretched out on top of her, things would be fine. They could stay there forever, and she would never have to face the consequences of her actions. Of her absence.

Callie shifted again, turning to press her cheek against her friend’s shoulder and peer up at her expectantly. It wasn’t lost on her that Jinx was so quiet; the only actual words she’d gotten out of her was that one utterance of her name. The rest was just affirmative sounds. If she had to guess, Callie would say that both of them had a lot to deal with, and that was fine - she just couldn’t remember Jinx ever being so despondent. 

There was so much to sort through. So many tangled thoughts, a full 18 months’ worth of events and feelings to talk about. For Callie, too. It would all have to be picked apart gently, carefully, and definitely couldn’t all be done right then. She had to start small. Twisting one of the strings of Jinx’s (Marie’s) hoodie around her finger, she considered just where that would be. 

“Hey,” she said after a moment. “We should go tell Marie you’re not dead.” 

Jinx tensed beneath her, a breath hitching in her throat. Callie knew her too well to miss it. 

“Just tell her the truth.” 

A tensing of the jaw. Callie didn’t  _ know  _ the truth, and that was a loaded gun of a suggestion.

“She’ll understand, Jinx.” 

No, Jinx was almost one hundred percent positive she wouldn’t.

“The longer you wait, the worse it’ll be.” 

The silence dragged out for another minute, in which Jinx refused to make eye contact with the Squid Sister staring holes into her chin. Stuck inside of her own head, playing out scenarios that hadn’t even happened. Recalling the look of frustration, of  _ hurt  _ on Marie’s face when she’d realized her girlfriend was lying to her - poorly, at that. The tips of her fingers dug a bit too hard into Callie’s shoulder while her thoughts circled.

Drawing away from the pressure, Callie wriggled until she could press a palm onto the armrest on either side of Jinx’s head. She pushed herself up, hovering determinedly over the younger inkling - her expression far too serious for someone like her. 

“Jinx,” she said. “You can’t avoid her forever.” 

Jinx was willing to take that bet, but she couldn’t say that out loud - not with Callie looking at her like that. She swallowed, hard. 

“...I haven’t been back that long,” she croaked, her voice raspy with disuse. “I’ve only been  _ here _ . S’not like I’ve had a chance to hunt her down.” 

‘Agent 3’ still held strong, it seemed. Her words came out far more calm than she was beginning to feel, the usual intensity of her emotions kept in check by the lingering instinct to survive and reach a goal that she’d already failed to achieve. Russet eyes flickered toward the wall, desperately trying not to look at Callie - afraid, perhaps, that she might find disappointment there. A reminder that despite everything, everything she gave up and everything that was pulled away without her consent, she had ultimately failed. 

“Callie,” Jinx said when she couldn’t take it anymore. “Your hip is digging into my stomach.” 

The older girl didn’t move right away, her gaze fixed pointedly to the patch of discolored skin splotched over Jinx’s eye. It took up the majority of the right side of her face, now that Callie was really looking at it, disappearing up into her hairline and spreading down almost to her neck. Not even her ear was spared from the sickly shade of teal, origins a mystery. 

When Callie let out an exaggerated sigh, the rush of air against the side of her friend’s face made her flinch. 

She finally moved, shifting back to sit on the empty cushion - Jinx regretted dismissing her the second she lacked the warmth, the pressure that had been keeping her grounded. 

“Why don’t you tell me where  _ you  _ were?” It wasn’t accusatory, wasn’t harsh; she tried to keep her tone light and teasing, despite the turmoil brewing in her head. She didn’t want to think about the things she had to face, not yet. She just wanted to enjoy the company of a best friend she had missed for almost two whole years. 

For someone so open and ready to talk - whether it be about her day, her job, people she cared about, or her feelings - Callie found herself hesitating to answer. She considered it, wondering if it was appropriate to bring it up so soon. She asked herself if  _ she  _ had even processed it all, over the last few weeks. When had she made time for that? 

“I… I don’t really want to talk about it yet,” she finally said, rubbing at the back of her neck. “I’ll tell you everything someday. Someday soon, okay?” 

Attempts to change the subject thwarted, Jinx sat up and nodded a bit. 

“You don’t wanna talk about it either, do you?” Callie asked gently. 

The silence slipped back in like an old friend and Jinx shook her head, knowing that she couldn’t discuss details that she couldn’t remember - the fact alone made her stomach twist uncomfortably. Like a reflexive search for comfort in the midst of chaos, she pressed the cuff of Marie’s hoodie against her face.

“You probably should have taken a bath before you put that on,” Callie pulled her from the fantasy for a moment, the makings of a teasing smile on her face when she caught Jinx’s attention. “You’re kinda stinky.”

“I missed you too, Cal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go. It'll still be 2 weeks til the next update. Until then my friends, please stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay positive. <3


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lonely, stubborn, and complacent  
> You have insisted on leaving me here  
> Writing the same song I started last year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy...is it Saturday? It's Saturday. 
> 
> Happy update day, Squidkids! Sorry for the short chapter last time. This one should tide you over for a couple weeks. (Ha. Tide. See what I did there--)
> 
> Summary song is Bittersweet Life by My Favorite Highway! Oh the playlist for this fic is. A Ride.

_Chapter 4_

She pushed it off for as long as she could, but it was getting late and Callie’s persistence knew no bounds. Before Jinx had much of a chance to make excuses - she still hadn’t bathed, after all, and that’s how much she _didn’t want_ to face Marie - her friend was already talking her out the door. They had a long walk anyway, she insisted, because all the cool kids were hanging out in Inkopolis Square nowadays. There, Off the Hook ran the news segments, Crusty Sean had moved his food truck, and even Sheldon had found better business. 

Not to mention it was the fastest route to a place called Octo Canyon, further from the Valley. Where the steadfast members of the New Squidbeak Splatoon could be found, according to Callie. 

The pair slipped through the grate before Jinx had a chance to look around, despite her last-ditch attempts at protesting that hey, she had never been in the Square and she wanted to explore. 

Octo Valley had been completely void of life, save for Cap’n Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio. Aside from the occasional clunking and clanging noises coming from the world below the surface, it was peaceful and quiet at all times - especially since Jinx was the only member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon who didn’t have anything else to do with her free time. 

Octo Canyon was _crowded_ by comparison. The Tentakeel Outpost seemed more put together at least, and it looked like the good Captain had beaten her there, resting his old bones on a comfortable cushion outside of a small cabin. Jinx couldn’t even see the city in the distance, only drifting spires against the night sky and hundreds of thousands of stars that stretched on in every direction. Even with the flickering light of an old lantern propped beside the cabin, she couldn’t count all of those stars if she had all night.

A snowglobe that looked like it had seen better days sat, patched up at the cracks, in the far corner. DJ Octavio sneered at her from behind the glass. Tightening her jaw at the sight of the Octarian leader, Jinx remained otherwise professional about it - which is to say, she stuck her tongue out at him.

“Hey guys, look who I fou--” Callie was already skipping forward to announce their arrival when her gaze landed squarely on Cuttlefish. With a soft gasp she rushed to his side, sweeping him up into a hug just barely gentle enough to not break him in half. “Gramps?! When did you get back! Oh my cod, where have you been, do you have any idea how _worried_ we’ve been??”

She launched effortlessly into a lecture, however good-natured, which Cuttlefish took in stride. 

Jinx’s attention drew away from the spectacle, shifting instead to the young inkling staring with wide eyes at Callie. He couldn’t have been much older than fifteen, maybe sixteen if she had to guess, sporting a bright yellow jacket and what looked like an upgraded version of… her headset. Her hero headset, the radio she used to keep in touch with the Squid Sisters when she was plugging through Octo Valley.

For some reason, the thought made her hearts sink. Was this kid an agent…? 

She took a deep breath, clearing her throat and stepping a little closer. “Hey,” she called over to the stranger, whose attention snapped to her immediately. “You aren’t supposed to be down here.”

Bright green eyes stared at her for a moment from behind rectangular glasses, taking her in - she almost felt self-conscious when his gaze lingered on her face. “Oh,” he said. “No, it’s okay! I’m Age-- I mean, uh, wait. No, that’s top secret--” 

“You’re an _agent_?” Jinx had patience in spades for younger inklings - she had to, after all, with the parcel of siblings she’d grown up with - but something was nagging at the back of her brain with this one. Something irritating that she couldn’t quite grasp. “An agent of the NSS?” 

It came out far more challenging than perhaps she wanted it to. She only noticed when the inkling’s smile faltered and he shrank back just the tiniest bit, his brow creased with worry. 

“Yeah, that’s--yes, I’m--”

“He’s Agent 4,” the interruption came quick, defensive. “And I’ll thank you not to hassle my agents.”

Jinx’s chest constricted to the point she couldn’t take a breath, clenched for just long enough to make her light-headed - when she finally looked up to the source of the voice, she lost a grip on her own. 

There were more words to describe how it felt to see the sunrise, than there were to explain the potent blend of anxiety and ardor churning in her stomach when Jinx saw Marie. She was all the things she always had been - elegant, radiant, beautiful, hooded golden eyes barely luminous in the stretching shadows cast by the lamplight. If anything, she was even more lovely than the younger inkling remembered her ever being. That may have been the absence though, the lack of her presence every day. 

Maybe it was the flickering of that lamp, but Jinx could have sworn Marie looked...upset. 

It would help if the idol would look at her, but as it was, her attention remained focused on her book. 

“Marie,” Jinx finally spoke again. Her fingers flexed a bit, half-hidden in the cuffs of the hoodie that she was suddenly _very_ aware she was wearing, and she couldn’t explain in a million years why she could not take those few steps forward to reach out. Why weren’t more words coming out? Why wasn’t she apologizing for not texting, for not telling the truth, for _leaving_? 

Instead, she just stood there with too many words caught in her throat and the dull threat of an oncoming headache.

Marie, looking for all the world like she didn’t even notice Jinx, let her stand there in uncomfortable silence. 

“Soooooo,” the brave soul who broke the growing tension was Callie. “Jinx isn’t dead! Isn’t that cool? Now you guys can sit down, and she can--” 

The book snapped shut with perhaps more force than necessary - the only clue that any of this mattered to her - and Marie arched her brows at her cousin in warning. “Agent 4 was able to contain the situation,” she said dismissively, tucking the book underneath her arm. “We don’t need Agent 3’s help. Callie, if you’ll escort her out, please.” 

She may as well have punched Jinx in the gut, shot her point-blank with a charger. The distant ache that had started to build behind her eye crept in further while she tried to scrape together her scattered emotions and make some kind of sense out of them. From the cluster, she managed to grab three truths:

The first was that Marie was upset. That was fine, she had every right to be, and Jinx had made her peace with this a long time ago. She knew she’d have to face this sooner or later, but while pretending she didn’t exist wasn’t the worst thing Marie could be doing, it still hit hard.

Second, she had been replaced. Agent 4, the bright-eyed teenager - the veritable _child_ sitting there gazing up at the stars with a wonder that only one so young could still have - he had been recruited to take over her spot in the Splatoon. 

The third? She was absolutely _furious_ about it.

Her whole life, Jinx could never remember being angry. She got frustrated from time to time, fed up with the calamity of her siblings back home, and it was no secret to anyone that all of her other emotions came on fast and intense - but not once was there rage quite like the one she could feel running hot beneath her skin. 

It burned slowly at first, just a warm tingle, barely there. The more she thought about it, the hotter it blazed. The first real emotion she had allowed herself to feel in almost two years, and it was _this_ \--

“So what, you just-- you _replaced_ me?” Words finally dislodged from Jinx’s throat, not at all the ones she had been planning to say, and completely lacking her consent. “With some _kid_ who looks like he’s barely out of his Splattershot Jr??”

She didn’t notice Percy shrinking back sheepishly. 

How Marie managed to go on pretending she couldn’t hear the indignance in the other agent’s words, she would never understand. Still she spoke as though nothing was amiss. As though this was all just a normal day. “With the Great Zapfish missing and Inkopolis in danger, it was in our best interests,” she shrugged. “Especially not knowing where _you_ were, or when you would come back.”

The worst part about it was that Jinx couldn’t argue - not with that - but she wanted to. She _needed_ to, to defend herself, to say that she was doing the right thing and trying to put their family back together. A sharp throb pulsed behind her right eye while she clung more tightly to the growing fire of anger burning in her chest. 

“Besides,” Marie continued. “Agent 4 has been a pleasure to train. He’s a fast learner, and he understands the difference between right and wrong.” 

“Marie,” Callie chimed in, her gaze flickering from the unfamiliar distress scrawled across Jinx’s face to the nonchalance fixed to Marie’s. 

Her cousin’s eyes lifted to meet hers. “He’s never once questioned it,” she said. “It’s kept things running smoothly.”

Jinx felt each word like a jellyfish sting, a shock to her nerves that stole her words before she could let them free. “Stop _,_ ” she choked out, unable to scrounge up any force behind it.

“Marie, that’s enough.” 

Callie kept her distance, kept an eye on things, but she knew this would escalate if she didn’t intervene. First and foremost, though - she leaned over and rested a reassuring hand on Agent 4’s shoulder, catching the boy’s attention. 

“Percy, maybe you should head home, okay?” 

The young inkling, his brow creased with worry and very much looking like he didn’t want to be there, curled his hands and tapped his fingertips together nervously. “Are you sure? I-I can stay, if you need me here, I can--”

“Percy,” Callie offered him a reassuring smile. The last thing she wanted was for this poor kid to get caught up in whatever mess was about to go down. “Go home, get some sleep. We’ll see you bright and early!” She gave him a gentle pat on the head, coaxing him to his feet and over to the storm drain.

The second he was out of sight, she turned back toward the stand-off unfolding between Jinx and Marie.

“That’s not fair,” Jinx tried to control her tone, to keep herself from raising her voice and listening to it echo around the canyon. “That’s not _fair_ , Marie, you can’t-- you can’t just--”

“I believe I mentioned that your assistance wasn’t necessary, Agent 3.” Marie busied herself as she spoke - adjusting the lantern, folding her parasol and resting it against the cabin. Straightening out cushions. Stupid, mundane things to keep her hands busy, to keep her from having to look at the girl. “So why are you still here?”

“Will you _please_ look at me?!” 

The demand was too loud, carrying between the floating rocks and odd octarian structures of the canyon. It was raw and desperate, a last-ditch attempt to get _something_ more than disinterest out of the woman she had spent the last year and a half aching to get home to. All she could do was fight to keep the fragile foundation of the life she left behind from crumbling beneath her.

Marie did not comply, not at first. She stood up straight, she took a breath, and she held her head high. 

“You want to talk about what’s _fair_?” Agitation threatened, creeping into her words, finally revealing the tiniest splinter in the mask she had otherwise secured expertly over her emotions. Quickly as it came though, she schooled herself back into that eerie calm. 

“Maybe you didn’t hear me. We had no idea _where you were_ , or _when you’d come back,_ if you even would.” Jinx owed her. She owed Marie, for weeks she wasted waiting. Precious moments between shows and rehearsals where she could have been sleeping were spent checking her phone, hoping for a text or a call. It frustrated her to know how much rest she’d lost over this, and Jinx was going to know it, too.

Finally ready to face the havoc she was wreaking, the older inkling braced herself and turned at last to fix Jinx with an icy gaze as she said, “You don’t get to decide what’s _\--_ ”

Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw - in the moment she laid eyes on Jinx, her anger took a back seat to confusion and concern. “--What _happened_ to you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is going to be even longer to make up for the cliffhanger, I promise :'D Take care of yourselves, stay hydrated, and get plenty of rest!!


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even good things fall apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Easter everyone! Hopefully you're all doing well today.
> 
> Update schedule is sort of out the window but I think what I'll be doing is, updating weekly unless I don't get the chapter finished in time to do so. With a majority of people in quarantine right now, including me, it just feels good. Feels organic.
> 
> I am putting in a bit of a warning for this chapter - Thus far this is probably the worst chapter in the whole fic as far as Bad Feelings go. 
> 
> Also, I'm going to start seeing if I can't make longer chapters! 
> 
> Anyway, that's enough of my rambling. Please enjoy!

While it had been a year and a half since they’d seen each other, it may as well have been a decade for how haggard Agent 3 looked. Exhausted,  _ just  _ noticeably underfed, and like she’d been verbally slapped on top of it. At least she’d gotten changed out of her NSS gear - there was no telling what kind of damage that may have seen. She didn’t hold herself with confidence, didn’t square her shoulders; she looked small and vulnerable wearing Marie’s hoodie.

The most striking change was the sickly teal splotch staining the right side of her face, reaching to the very tip of her ear. It stretched pale and unnatural against her dark skin, disappearing into her hairline and barely missing the corner of her mouth. 

Marie’s first instinct was to reach out for her, a hand lifting and her fingers twitching just a bit reflexively. Her weight shifted like she was going to take a step, to cross over and take Jinx’s face between her palms. The second she moved, though, Jinx stepped back, maintaining the distance between them and reminding Marie that she was upset. She drew her hand back, folding her arms across her chest instead. 

“Are you alright?” 

It was such a stupid question. She knew it as soon as she let it slip, but she had to be sure - because despite all that it disrupted her life for as long as it had, it was still Jinx. 

For Agent 3, it sounded more like an obligated question than one born of actual concern for her well-being. Especially after a speech like that, Marie couldn’t possibly be stepping down from her soapbox already. Jinx could feel her brow furrow in disbelief, growing ever more aware of the splitting headache - agitated by the swell of emotions she couldn’t filter through and define. 

It all culminated, circled back to one thing: anger. That was truly all that lingered in the mess. 

Shaking her head, Jinx took another step back. “Are you  _ serious _ ?” Words came unbidden. “You-- you honestly have the nerve to ask me that? Have you looked at me? Do I  _ look  _ alright?!” She gestured vaguely to herself, to her marred face. 

She had never yelled at Marie before. Not once. It showed for a moment, surprise flashing across the idol’s face before it was schooled back into mild annoyance. No, she wanted to say, Jinx looked awful. She looked like she hadn’t seen sunlight in years, the shadows from the lantern playing across the dark circles beneath her eyes, and Marie couldn’t let her gaze rest on that scar for too long - it unsettled her in a way she couldn’t describe. 

For all that she wanted to say, instead she said nothing.

“What, after all that, now you don’t have anything to say to me?!” Jinx heard her voice crack, blaming her growing agitation on the pain now absolutely searing through her head. 

They replaced her. They moved on. Had anyone even considered looking for her? Did Marie care at  _ all _ ? When did her hands start shaking? 

In the pause that followed, amber eyes stared at her as though she were a complete stranger. The silence that should have hurt just aggravated her. 

“No,” Marie said. “Not if you’re going to behave like a child.” 

She could never have expected the reaction those words might garner. 

For two years, Marie had grown close to Agent 3 - to Jinx, the inkling who wore her heart on her sleeve. To bright smiles and a passion that drove everything she did. Even in the heat of battle with the Octarians, Jinx had always made a game of it, had a good time with it. She wasn’t predisposed to anger. 

The instant those cutting words left her tongue, Jinx’s eyes flashed in what Marie could only describe as rage - a kind of fury that bordered on animalistic, the inkling’s fangs bared as a snarl tore from her throat. She reached for a weapon that, thankfully, wasn’t at her side. 

Not much could spook the idol at that point in her life, but that look? That  _ scared  _ her. For the first time she considered that no matter how justified her own anger was, she had gone too far.

Without her charger on hand there wasn’t much she could use to defend herself and she reached for the discarded parasol, ready to weaponize it if she had to. Her gaze trained on Jinx like she was staring down an Octarian out for her skin instead of the girl who once spoke her name with warm reverence.

Undeterred by her missing hero shot, Jinx shifted one foot back and sprang forward with the practiced ease of an NSS agent. Marie, just as well-trained, held tight to her parasol and braced herself.

Callie was faster, landing between the two of them and grabbing Jinx by the shoulders, all reaction with no time to consider consequences. She held fast despite the snarling growls and desperate squirming of the inkling in her grip, shoving aside her panic and the pounding of her hearts. 

“ _ Hey!  _ That’s enough!” She gave a gentle shake, hoping to jostle some sense into the girl. “Jinx!”

For a moment, nothing. Then, the writhing stopped. Jinx’s jaw relaxed and her eyes re-focused, blinking rapidly as the vision before her cleared. She was left looking up at Callie, who watched her with some mix of concern and caution, and she shook her head to clear the fog from her mind. The pain that had been wracking her head just a moment ago faded back into little more than a phantom ache, a memory and nothing more.

“What…” Pressure, there was pressure on her arms— Callie was holding tightly to her. When Jinx lifted her gaze and landed on Marie, she felt her throat go dry.

Marie was staring at her like she was facing down a wild animal. There was no other way to describe it. Her stance read as cautious and defensive. 

The familiar chill of dread settled heavily in Jinx’s stomach when she realized that she had no idea what the last few minutes had entailed. It was a blank spot, the time between the last thing Marie had said and the instant she found Callie holding her.

Holding her  _ back. _

A shaky hand lifted to cover her mouth as she shrugged Callie off, stepping back. Away from her best friend. “Oh, cod—“

Marie didn’t move, eyes locked onto Jinx. 

“Jinx,” Callie was watching her too, carefully, like she was trying not to spook her. “It’s okay. Calm down, Marie didn’t mean it—“

Jinx shook her head, already glancing over her shoulder in short bursts to find the exit. She had to go. There was no other thought, no other option, she had to get away from there. The details of what was said didn’t matter half as much as the aftermath.

Trouble was, she had no clue what the aftermath  _ was.  _ There was a hole there. A tiny gap in her memory, one that left her too unsettled to pretend it wasn’t there. 

In another breath, she turned and disappeared down the storm drain, leaving the Squid Sisters and Cap’n Cuttlefish to puzzle over what the hell had just happened. 

\---

If Agent 8 had to describe himself in one word, he supposed it would be...efficient. 

At least, from what he could remember about himself that sounded right. Through every test he’d been put through on the Deepsea Metro, he had more or less passed quickly. He relied on his observational skills to plan out each movement, down to the very last detail, and picked his way through each one with minimal…  _ pyrotechnics _ involved. 

Maybe it would be strange to say he admired whoever made those ink bombs, but they clearly had thought and care put into their creation.

Regardless, efficiency and practicality had both landed him safely in Inkopolis. The only problem was, now he had nowhere to stay. The octoling still had no idea what his past had been like, where he had lived or how he’d even wound up in the Deepsea Metro - granted, he had the clues. The box of odd little cakes tucked into his backpack, the ones he had zero interest in learning from. 

He wound up picking his way down to a place called Octo Canyon, through a sewer grate in the city. The surprisingly spry old squid who had stuck by him through the Metro assured him there was space there where he could set up for a little while, and the small floor plan of Cuttlefish Cabin was plenty of room for him. 

Out of habit, Agent 8 began tinkering with the nearly-archaic microwave the very first night when he couldn’t sleep. By morning, it sported three new functions and ran as quietly as any microwave could.

Within the first week, every meager appliance in the place was running above peak performance and he had started to dig through the cupboards for junk he could dismantle. He steered clear of the silver-haired inkling that frequently hung around the canyon, seeing the disdain in the looks she cast his way when he emerged from the cabin carrying a beaten-up old toaster and the remote control to a TV set that hadn’t worked for decades. 

Her darker-haired companion seemed fine, greeting him with a bright smile and reminding him to “give a holler if you need any help!”

Agent 8 and Agent 4 didn’t cross paths much, which was perfectly fine with him. The young inkling was just… Too Much. 

Apparently though, it was time for him to “find himself a hobby” when he started turning wires and scrap metal into low-grade,  _ theoretical  _ explosive devices. Though he was encouraged to give turf wars a try, the first thing that caught his attention was the sign above GrizzCo. Something about salmonids? 

The voice over the oddly-shaped radio gave him a concerningly brief rundown of what was expected of him, but after a couple of weeks he had it down to a science. It was a different set of teammates every time he stepped onto the boat, but that was completely fine with him - he wasn’t much of a communicator anyway, unless there were other octolings aboard. They shared a few words, but for the most part he stayed out of it until it came time for the shift to start.

Communication there was key, after all - not unlike being a soldier. (Not that he could remember any of that.) Agent 8 functioned with whatever teammates he was paired with as best as he could, but he wasn’t too bad about jumping in to pull his fallen comrades out of the mess of slimy green ink, and he took down a fair number of boss salmonids. Getting paid for the effort wasn’t too bad of a deal at least, and the octoling began planning on how he would get his own apartment.

Most inklings, he noted, had roommates - though, he wasn’t sure if it was out of financial necessity, mandated by the powers that be, or just for socialization purposes. The way things were going, he realized (with a hefty amount of resignation) that he was going to need someone to split rent with.

The issue was, he wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of… people. Not the people he’d been spending his work shifts with, or the ones hanging around Inkopolis Square. Everything there was just so loud - there was always chatter, always traffic, the clattering of the Great Zapfish when it soared overhead during the day. The bright lights had captivated him the first time he witnessed the city lit up in the dead of night, made him curious, but all he wound up getting was a headache. 

Octo Canyon was quiet, and though Agent 2 - Marie, he was pretty sure her name was Marie - made it no secret that she didn’t want him there, the Captain was clear on the subject. Agent 8 liked it there. He could see every star glimmering to life after the sun went down over the domes. Solitude suited him just fine.

So finding a roommate was going to be a challenge. 

As he started his third week working for GrizzCo, the octoling wound up on the boat beside an inkling girl that he was familiar with. Dark skin, dark eyes - though of course, the thing that gave her away was the splatter of a scar left by sanitized ink. Agent 3’s gaze focused on him when he approached her, his posture rigid like he expected she would pounce on him at any moment. 

She had almost tried to kill him, after all. 

Silver eyes locked with hers and he searched for any sign of malice there, any of the feral glow that stayed burned in the back of his mind from their confrontation at Kamabo. There was nothing, save for the kind of exhaustion that he would expect from an old man like Cap’n Cuttlefish.

He didn’t pay much attention to the other two inklings on the boat as they sped across the sea toward their next shift. Neither did Agent 3. She offered him a ghost of a smile, just a brief thing that didn’t reach her eyes before it fell away again, and he figured she didn’t want to talk. 

The way she handled herself on their shift, though, was completely different. Agent 8 had expected her to be lethargic with a large blindspot on her right, but his fellow agent’s movements were as fluid and deadly as they were when he’d gone toe to toe with her. She handled the N-Zap she’d been issued like an extension of herself, splatting salmonids right and left, calling out what bosses were emerging from the depths and where she spotted them.

Agent 3 had leadership potential, he thought. It was impressive, a bit scary, and set him on the defensive for the first wave before he could convince his body that she wasn’t a threat to him. Not anymore, at least. In fact, for the first time since they’d arrived on the surface, he considered the very real possibility that she’d make a good ally. 

He could tolerate being around her in the heat of battle, which was saying a lot, and after a few hours with her taking down boss salmonids and earning praise from that voice over the radio, he made his decision.

When it was all over and they were headed back to Inkopolis, the octoling sat across from her, back pressed to the railing of the boat. Watching her and thinking of how best to approach what he wanted to say. 

She had to know he was staring for far longer than it took her to acknowledge him. When she finally did speak, it sounded like she was filtering her thoughts into something forced and polite. “What’s up?” 

Agent 8 didn’t know if she hated him or if she was just tired. What he did know, though, was that they couldn’t be caught talking about the NSS in mixed company - luckily, Agent 3 understood Octarian. “ _ I need a roommate, Agent 3, _ ” he told her. 

Her brow furrowed and he waited for her to process. “Uh,” she picked at the fingertips on her heavy-duty rubber gloves. It was a beat or two before her response came in somewhat-clunky Octarian. “ _ You could call Marina and Pearl? _ ” 

“ _ Why would I do that? Do I need their permission? _ ” He shook his head. 

Agent 3 stared at him like he’d grown an extra tentacle from his nostril. Like she was waiting for the rest of an explanation. 

“ _ I don’t… know what you’re trying to tell me, Eight. _ ” She finally confessed, tripping over a few words. Maybe she wasn’t as fluent in his native tongue as he thought, but he was likely just as terrible at Inklish so he let it slide.

He rubbed at the back of his neck thoughtfully. “ _ You’re the only person in Inkopolis I know. I would feel comfortable rooming with you. _ ”

The next five minutes was nothing but the splash of the waves against the sides of the boat as it cut the water toward Inkopolis, the lightest background chatter from the other two inklings that had come with them. Agent 3 just kept staring at him, incredulously if he was reading her expression right. It wasn’t a particularly hard discussion, maybe she was having trouble keeping up? He was being perfectly rational.

“ _ Are you asking me if I need a roommate? _ ” 

Agent 8 nodded once.

“ _ I don’t even know your name. _ ”

Oh. “Bernard,” he offered. 

“Bernard,” she repeated with a sigh. “Jinx.  _ Let me think about it. _ ”

It may not have solved his problem, but it was a step in the right direction. They exchanged phone numbers just as the boat docked and parted ways with her reassurance that she’d text him in a couple of days. 

All in all, Bernard found it to be a very productive day. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any and all comments are always appreciated. <3 Have a good week everyone!


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If the sky comes falling down,  
> For you,  
> There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, I hope you're ready for some honey nut feelio's!
> 
> I'd like to dedicate this chapter to Qul, for pushing me on. 
> 
> And to READERS like YOU!!

Frustration was too weak of a word to describe how Ame Valente felt about the situation he'd found himself in. 

Ever since he was old enough to understand what being an older brother meant, he prided himself on doing the best job he possibly could. He kept an eye on his siblings, all six of them - he made sure they stayed out of trouble, gave advice and taught lessons, and especially after their mother had passed away he took care of things. In particular, he was always close with Jinx. Being just a year apart meant they went through many of the same milestones together, faced hardships with each other.

They had their fair share of arguments, but they always made up. They always kept in touch. Even with her in the city full-time, Ame never had to miss her. She was always just a text away, and when he did find himself dipping out of League matches, they met up for some one on one practice. He remembered being so impressed on the day that she got the drop on him.

For the last year and a half, though, he hadn't seen his sister's face even once. At the very least she had been in contact, though it was only a few words and it was never more than once or twice a month - it got his hopes up to see her name on his phone, taking the wind out of his sails immediately when she never responded to him again. He didn't understand. Jinx was never this flighty. Even if no one else heard from her, she always, always kept in touch with Ame.

When it all started, he had gone through every channel he could think of to hunt down an answer. Authorities treated it like a non-issue, told him that inklings take spur-of-the-moment trips and make less than stellar decisions all the time, told him not to let it ruffle his fins. She would turn up in a week or two. Callie didn't answer her phone at all, not for a text or a call - she had a decent excuse at least, with her busy schedule. 

He tried to touch base with Marie, positive that if anyone was going to know where Jinx was it would be her, but she offered him nothing but a very clipped "I haven't seen her." She wouldn't even stick around to talk about it. 

In a last-ditch effort to learn the truth, he even tucked into the back alley of the Plaza where Spyke skulked around. Vexing but predictable, the sea urchin promised him that he'd never heard of an inkling named Jinx.

"S'nothing personal, luv," he said as Ame clenched his jaw. "Authorities gettin' involved is bad for business. You understand."

He didn't know why he'd bothered with that. 

Honestly, he knew the right thing to do was to trust his sister. To believe that she was okay, that her simple sporadic texts of 'I'm still alive, just busy, say hi to the fam for me' were to be taken at face value. He shouldn't read too much into it - but there was nothing more difficult than having to go home every weekend, look into the faces of his younger siblings, and tell them that no, he didn't know when Jinx was coming home again.

All he could do was helplessly tell them she loved them and would be back soon. 

Ame shook the pale mint fringe out of his eyes, palms pressed back against the rooftop where he rested. A deep sigh swept out of his lungs, not the first of many he'd been breathing over the last year or so. All the dead ends, all the missing pieces - something just didn't add up, and not for the first time he couldn't help but think that he really didn't know much about his sister's personal life. What could she be up to, what had her so busy that she couldn't even meet up with her big brother?

It left a bitter taste in his mouth. 

As he watched another sunrise past the city skyline, washing Inkopolis in its soft glow and waking the birds with it, his phone chimed from his pocket as if on cue. 

[Jinx: New Message] 

Well, it had been almost two months. She was right on time. 

[jinx] hey

[jinx] are you free this afternoon?

Azure eyes stared at the words for longer than they probably should have, the inkling taking the phone in both hands. His demeanor shifted from dumbstruck to urgent - it almost didn't feel real, it was so different from her usual 'check in' texts. She wanted to see him? She was actually not too busy for that? Cod, he had so many questions he wanted to ask her, he was frantic to punch out a string of messages, all of the thoughts suddenly clouding his mind from just one simple question.

Ame took a deep breath and, in the end, only sent one text.

[ame] Sure am! Wanna meet up?

The mix of relief and nerves that washed over him when she almost immediately started typing a response was potent. 

[jinx] yea, lets meet at crusty seans in the square

[jinx] my treat

[jinx] 2 sound good?

[ame] 2 is great. I'll see you then!

Just like that, so abrupt and without any fanfare, his shoulders felt lighter. A year and a half, and after all his ruminating and trying to tell himself not to freak out about it, he was finally going to be able to see his sister. He had so many questions, so many expectations, and at the same time he had no idea what to expect. 

That sunrise had never felt so hopeful.

\---

Three weeks ago, she had moved out of the Squid Sisters' apartment. 

Every second that dragged on, every moment Jinx spent packing whatever clothes were still left there - pulling them out of Marie's bottom drawer as quickly as her shaking hands would allow - it all seemed so surreal. She operated on auto-pilot, driven by panic, by the way Marie and Callie had both been looking at her when she'd come back to her senses. Like she was a stranger, like they were ready for a fight. There was only one reason she could think of for that, and there she was seeing the cause and effect but unable to connect the dots.

She had tried to avoid crossing paths with either of them the next day, staying out and wandering around Inkopolis Square like a zombie lost in thought all night and showing up in the early afternoon - so naturally, Callie was there, because the universe was picking on her and wanted to watch her entire life go up in flames. 

It had taken every ounce of self-control she had not to cry. Crying, she had discovered, aggravated the injury to her face - the one everyone else had seen that she still couldn't bring herself to look at.

"You don't have to go," her best friend promised her, though her tone lacked conviction. She was trying, Jinx knew that, the way her brow furrowed in concern and her eyes brimmed with worry. No trace of the fear from the last time they'd seen each other. "Whatever happened, we can talk about it. We can work it out."

But Jinx just shook her head, zipping up the duffel bag she'd stuffed full of clothes and hefting it up onto her shoulder. How was she supposed to explain herself? She had gaps. Gaps in her memory, spaces she couldn't fill with answers no matter how deep she dug inside of herself to grab them. The nightmares she'd had after Callie's disappearance seemed like a walk in the park compared to how she was feeling, the inescapable fear of the unknown. The monsters looming over her and barely brushing claws over her back, disappearing in a blink when she turned to catch them.

"I'm sorry," was what she landed on, hesitating as she stood before Callie. As desperately as she wanted to hug her, to take comfort from her, she could still feel the ghost of hands gripping her shoulders - keeping her from doing something unspeakable. 

Jinx was no good at hiding her pain. Callie saw it, plain as day, painted across her face like fresh ink, and it was agonizing to know that she could do nothing to fix it. The younger inkling would never ask her to - that wasn't her job. 

"I'll text you when I'm settled again, okay?" She tried for reassurance, offered a weak smile that stretched the skin too tightly across the right side of her face. 

The reluctance in Callie's small nod came through loud and clear, one hand crossed over her chest to grip her other arm. "'Kay," she accepted it like forced retirement. Told Jinx she loved her. Sent her off.

Thankfully, all it had taken to get herself a new place was a visit to her favorite sea urchin. Jinx had to hunt Spyke down, finding him tucked away in a popular cafe in the Square. They chatted for a few minutes about the situation - her old apartment in the Plaza had been cleared out, not that there was much to take, but for the right price he assured her that he could get his hands on most of it. Get the keys back for her, reinstate her lease. He'd have her things delivered there in a couple of days.

Spyke had always had connections. Seeing him running an almost-legitimate business was jarring, though, especially when the last place Jinx had seen him was in a back alley with a pile of quivering sea snails crowding around him.

Just another reminder that she forced herself not to think about too hard. Time passed without anyone's consent, and the world moved on whether she was a part of it or not. It struck her like a charger shot to the gut and she decided, trekking back to her apartment with the keys jingling in her pocket, that too much had changed. Too much. She hated it.

It hurt. 

What an unbelievably devastating understatement that was, but it did - more than she ever thought she could possibly hurt. Watching Marie turn away from her. Seeing those amber eyes dull with complete and utter disinterest, like she was staring at a complete stranger who wasn’t worth her time or attention. Jinx, who had been so elated at the idea of coming back home - returning to Inkopolis, to her friends, her family, to Marie - instead found herself suffocating beneath the realization that Marie didn’t want her anymore. 

Didn’t love her anymore.

She couldn’t fathom it, the idea that it all meant nothing. An entire year of her life, something she’d invested so much of herself into, only for it all to backfire on her and crumble to dust in her hands. She told herself over and over again that it couldn’t be true. Even with the reality weighing heavy on her hearts, the last thing she wanted to do was acknowledge it - so she didn’t. When the words drifted across her mind, creeping forward, she immediately shoved them back into the dark corner they crawled out of. 

It was the only thing she had the energy to focus on.

Sitting all alone, in her empty one-bedroom apartment on the other side of Inkopolis Plaza, Jinx fought to convince herself it was just her paranoia. A result of all the gaping holes in her memory that threatened to grow and rip her apart from the inside out. She told herself that they would move past this, they could work through it - this would finally be the thing that got them communicating.

She lost days at a time, as they melted into one another at an absolutely agonizing pace. A few days turned into a few weeks, the only thing keeping her in touch with reality being the shifts she worked for GrizzCo. In the haze of dulled misery just waiting for the dam to break, she looked at her phone maybe once or twice a day - a jagged crack splintered the screen from the bottom-left corner all the way up to the top-right. Idly, she wondered when that happened.

There was the last text she had gotten from her brother, a reminder that she had to drag herself out of the apartment and plaster a fake smile onto her face in a couple of hours. In a way, she knew part of that was a hopeless attempt to force some kind of normalcy back into her life.

Her battery was dying. She should probably plug that in. She should text Callie. 

She didn't.

Movement was a chore, at best. All of her limbs were heavy and useless, weighed down by the events of the last few months blending together. Not unlike the primordial slurry that she could still smell, astringent and stinging in her nostrils from the puddles splattered about Kamabo. She lay in her bed, her old bed, the one she’d barely seen before she disappeared underground. The one that didn’t smell like Marie, in an entire apartment that was nothing but dusty and stale. 

Her jacket, her boots, her busted headset - all of her Agent gear was still in a heap where she’d chucked it the first day she’d stepped foot into this husk of a place. She hadn’t even unpacked the clothes she’d had to bring back from the Squid Sisters’ place. 

She laid there with a tangled mess of thoughts that she was too exhausted to pick apart, wishing she could fall asleep. Maybe when she opened her eyes again, everything would go back to the way it was - back to where she had never left in the first place. Back to where she told the first lie, made the decision to walk away without giving Marie an answer. Where she could change that one choice, make a better one, and avoid all of this.

And if it didn’t? Well...then maybe she could just sleep for the rest of her life.

So much. There was so much. And she couldn’t bear to think about it by herself, but she didn’t want to ask anyone for help either. The last thing on her mind was dumping her garbage onto anyone else she cared about. Especially when everyone was dealing with so much.

Callie, her best friend, the one she failed to save? She had been lost for so long, she didn’t deserve getting buried under more grief. She should be enjoying the fresh air with the people she missed.

Ame, her brother, the closest family she had - he was just so excited to meet up with her. Jinx couldn’t take that happiness away from him by telling him the truth, that only half of her was actually present and accounted for. If that. She had to go to lunch with him and lie, which...at least she'd become somewhat adept at that over the last few weeks.

...She couldn’t even consider Marie. Could barely let the name settle in her thoughts without her chest aching with emptiness, not unlike the space around her - she kept seeing flashes of eyes gazing at her, wide with shock and far too guarded. 

So she didn’t think. She rolled onto her side on a bed that didn’t feel like hers, dull brown eyes staring at the wall in an apartment she didn’t recognize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some oof.
> 
> It's gotta get worse before it gets better. See you next week!


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All that's left of myself,  
> Holes in my false confidence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No notes today. Enjoy!

"Okay Gramps, run us through it." 

Callie was certainly not known for being the calm and collected Squid Sister. Expectations on her were nothing short of waiting for the other shoe to drop, for her to be beside herself with worry, fidgeting in her seat - instead, she kept her cool, sat on one side of their grandfather while Marie occupied space on the other side. A gentle hand rested on the old man's knee and she spoke gently.

Though, the slight bounce in her knee may have given away how much she was hiding. 

On the other hand, Marie couldn't relax even if she were threatened at gunpoint to do so. There were so many questions clustering together in her head, so many things to think about that she had never considered before. She was so ready to be mad, to give Jinx the silent treatment, to punish her for... everything. 

The second she caught sight of the girl, it _changed_ everything. It made things complicated. There was no longer a clear-cut line where hurt and anger culminated together, separate entirely from whatever worry she'd tucked away a long time ago. To some degree, of course there was relief that Agent 3 was still alive. They'd been friends for too long, and Marie couldn't just dismiss that. 

The fact still stood that she was left in the dark, left alone with only flimsy fibs from two of the people she cared most about. She never questioned whether or not she was allowed to be upset about it, even now.

Jinx's face, though... that _scar_. 

Something was inherently wrong about it. Marie couldn't put her finger on what it was, but it made her feel sick and unsure of herself. It made her regret her cutting words the second they'd slipped from her tongue.

Through her racing thoughts, Cap'n Cuttlefish cleared his throat and took a deep breath. 

"Well, y'see girls," he said, "Agent 3 and I were plannin' on the trip underground right about the instant Callie went missin'. I knew somethin' smelled fishy about it, and when she told me that ol' codfish Octavio had busted out, there was only one choice." 

He lacked any of his usual energy, that of an old man telling wild tales to entertain his grandchildren. This was serious. This was the truth, and had to be delivered as such.

Callie and Marie exchanged glances across the couch. A silent agreement that they wouldn't interrupt, no matter what startling revelations came out of this. 

"I left ya a postcard," this was directed at Marie. "Seems like it musta got lost in all yer fanmail, eh? An' Agent 3 understood that we couldn't let ya in on what we were doin'. Ye'd wanna tag along, I couldn't let ya do that. No hard feelin's, Squiddo."

Marie tried to swallow _plenty_ of 'hard feelings.' She curled her fingers against her leg, took a deep breath, and let him continue. 

"Unfortunately, Agent 3 an' I got separated - some landlubber didn't know how to make a map, I got turned around, and next thing I knew it she was gone. These ol' cuttlebones ain't what they used to be, so after searching the tunnels for a bit I stopped to rest. I came up on Agent 8 then, he was just a-sleepin' and humming the Inkantation. So, I picked the lad up. Not bad for an octoling, eh?" A raspy, fond chuckle. "He's a good agent, a good kid. Doesn't talk much though, y'know, I think he could use some--"

"Gramps," Marie cut him off, maybe a bit too sharply. Another deep breath. She had to stay calm, she couldn't let this get the better of her, but she had to know. "Agent 3. What happened to Agent 3?" 

Cuttlefish 'hummed' and 'hawed' like he was thinking about it. They couldn't really blame him - he wasn't as young as he used to be, after all. There was wiggle room for the cousins to have a little patience. The way his shaky hands kept their grip on his cane instead of resting it against the nearest surface, though, Marie couldn't help but read into it. 

"There was this ink, y'see," he spoke gravely. "Nasty stuff. Smelled like the kinda stuff ya use to clean a public restroom after Splatfest." 

Callie wrinkled her nose just thinking about it.

"When we were makin' our way back up to the surface with Agent 8," a pause. "He was carryin' her, y'see, she got conked pretty hard on the noggin when she busted up the blender - he slipped a bit, that's all. Some o' that junk got on her face." 

"It did _that_ kind of damage...?" Marie saw Jinx in her mind's eye, tired and scarred. Like she'd taken a splash of ink to the face and didn't recover. Considering normal ink didn't leave those kinds of marks, it was a jarring thought. 

The old inkling nodded. "I'm tellin' ya, it's a good thing that stuff didn't see the surface. What a mess!" He sighed. "I s'pose the point is, ya shouldn't be so hard on Agent 3. She's the best of us, an' she did just what was expected of her. Put herself on the line for all of squid-kind." 

Through his beard, Callie and Marie could see the proud smile on their grandfather's face. The NSS really was near and dear to his heart. 

"Speakin' of Agent 3, have ya seen her around lately? I think she oughta give a run through the canyon, since ya found that place an' all--" 

"No," Callie said firmly, cutting Marie off at the pass. "Jinx just got home, Gramps - even heroes need a break now and then! I think it's best if we let her settle in. Besides, Agent 4 has that covered!" 

The way she looked up and caught Marie's eye said more. They had a lot to talk about, and a majority of it probably wouldn't be pleasant. 

They said their goodbyes and sent the captain off with a round of tight hugs, some grateful words, and a promise that they'd have dinner together in a couple of days. Besides, Marie would be dipping down to Octo Canyon to keep an eye on Percy while he did some target practice. The door closed behind him.

Callie took a deep breath, her hand still resting on the handle. When she turned to face Marie again, her expression read like she wasn't sure how she wanted to feel, and it set her cousin on the defensive almost immediately.

Callie’s patience had always been deeper than the ocean - at least, her patience for the people she loved. She would pass along advice and warm words of comfort, dole out hugs and keep people company whenever and wherever they needed it. She could sympathize with people, help validate their feelings, and cheer up anyone with her bubbly personality and chronic optimism. 

However. 

She was absolutely at the end of her rope with her cousin. With the entire situation. Callie knew her limits, and very few people managed to push them like Marie and Jinx had - between that single confrontation, and the three weeks of stubborn cold-shouldering that followed. She moved away from the door, her tentacles swinging around her as she whirled to face the mask of apathy poorly situated on Marie’s face. 

It hid nothing. Not from her. 

“You haven’t even tried to talk to her about what happened.” It wasn’t a question. She knew the answer. “Not _once_.” 

Marie crossed her arms and tipped her chin in defiance, pretending that her walls were fortified. After more than a year of living as one half of a pair - of having no one who knew her as more than a pop star - she had more than adjusted to being alone. She was doing just fine, thank you very much.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she stated, so confidently she almost believed herself. “She made her decision--” 

Callie wasn’t having any of it. Arms folded across her chest tightly, she fixed Marie with a hard stare. “Don’t give me that carp, Marie Cuttlefish. You’re smarter than that, especially now that you have the whole story.” 

The accusation hung in the air for only a moment before she went on, refusing to hear argument until she said her piece. She knew her cousin better than anyone else in the world - Marie put up a front that could fool anyone into thinking she was anything besides an inkling who’d had her heart broken. Who was in pain. “Tell her how you feel. Tell her that you’re upset, tell her that you’re _hurting_ \--” 

“Why?” Marie cut in, matching Callie’s gaze as though knowing the truth didn't faze her. “So she can apologize? So she gets off scot free, with a clear conscience?” She had been angry for so long, shoveling a deeper and deeper chasm to bury any feelings that weren’t of use to her - and she wasn’t about to start exhuming the remains now. 

As far as she was concerned, Jinx had lied to her. Lied, and disappeared without even the common decency to say anything about it. No matter the reasons why. She deserved to squirm, to wither, to hurt the way Marie did. 

“I don’t have to do anything.” There was no room for argument. “Jinx is the one who left. No matter what the reason, that was _her choice_.”

That was Jinx's choice, one Marie was not given the option to discuss with her. She wasn't about to give back that kind of courtesy.

Callie's jaw tightened and she opened her mouth again, ready to reprimand Marie for being such a stubborn child - her phone pinged before she could get the first word out. A frustrated sound came out instead and she pulled the device from her pocket, glancing at the screen quickly so she could decide if it was worth walking away from this. 

The short answer was yes.

"We aren't done talking about this," she warned, tucking her phone away again. "But I have to go." 

Shoulders still tensed, Marie let out a terse hum of acknowledgement. "Sure. See you."

Callie shook her head in frustration, sliding her shades on and heading out the door. 

Right then, she had to play the other side of the fence. 

  
  


\---

Meeting for lunch had been a bad idea. 

It was a realization that hit Jinx far too late, when she was already sitting at a table in the square. When a ticket had already been exchanged for a deep-fried schwaffle and she could see the unmistakable form of her big brother speed-walking toward her - and there she sat, feeling self-conscious and unsure, with no story she could tell him that would make up for the fact that she'd abandoned her family for a year and a half.

Ame was as understanding as family could possibly be, but she was a horrible liar to begin with and he wasn't going to take whatever she fabricated as the truth. He could see right through her.

Jinx bounced her knee underneath the table, nerves completely shot, the metal clanking softly against the concrete below as it jiggled. 

When she could finally hear the smack of his sneakers on the pavement, she took a deep breath and lifted a hand. 

"Hey, Am--" 

He didn't give her a chance to finish. The moment he was within reach, Ame grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the chair, winding his arms around her and yanking her into as tight a hug as he could without crushing her lungs. She managed to turn her head so that her more vulnerable side didn't get squished against his jacket.

"Jinx," he sounded choked up, just what she'd expected as he hugged her. "Cod, you have no idea how happy I am to see you." 

Even if she had known this was how things would play out, she still couldn't stop the swell of emotion in her chest, moving to her throat when she opened her mouth to speak. She couldn't help the hot sting of tears in her eyes as she slipped her arms around her brother and her fingers curled into his jacket. 

There she was, thinking she couldn't cry anymore, clutching to Ame like a lifeline as her shoulders started to tremble. 

"I missed you so much." She managed to keep the tremor out of her voice by some miracle, holding onto him far longer than someone who wasn't emotionally compromised might.

When they'd finally both gotten their fill and Ame pulled back just enough to get a good look at her, his brow instantly creased with worry. Hands rested on her shoulders and she dropped her arms to her sides, unable to meet his gaze. She sniffed, swiped her wrist under her nose, and stared at the table.

"What is--" He lifted a hand like he was going to touch her face, pulling back as soon as she flinched away. "Jinx, what happened?" 

Any comfort she may have gotten from that embrace slipped away as quickly as it came, leaving a cold hollow in the pit of her stomach. Lunch was a bad idea, if only for the fact that she didn't think she could eat without feeling sick. There was no way she could tell him the truth - not without talking about the NSS. 

The secret agent life she had been hiding from him for the last four years.

It wasn't going to go over well. 

"Jinx, please. Talk to me." 

Ame was her brother, and he was so earnest, and it made Jinx's hearts ache to know she had been the most dishonest sister in the entire world for so long now. She wished he wouldn't look at her like that, like he was so worried for her well-being - she didn't deserve that. She didn't deserve him. Didn't deserve Callie, and certainly not Marie--

She took a deep breath. 

"I'll tell you everything," she promised at last, words thick with how nervous she was. Anxious. Terrified of all the possible outcomes. "But not here." 

Ame nodded without hesitation. "Let's get lunch to go. Your place?" 

"Yeah. That's fine." 

Whatever was going to happen over the next hour or so, Jinx was sure it wouldn't be good, but what else could she do? Shaky hands pulled her phone from her pocket while Ame was chatting with Sean, for the first time giving in to the fact that she couldn't do this by herself. 

[jinx] im going to tell ame about the nss

[jinx] please dont make me do this alone

  
  


She didn't wait for a response - she couldn't. Her brother came back to her side with two bagged schwaffles and she stuck by him like velcro as they headed back to her apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is taking good care of themselves. We'll see you next week.


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Try to open up my eyes,  
> I'm hoping for a chance to make it alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey squidkids! Hope you're all staying well. I apologize for the delay in chapter - I've been super busy with streaming and life stuff so it didn't get worked on but intermittently.
> 
> BUT.
> 
> It's here now! Enjoy~

Callie had been waiting for them when they got back to the apartment.

Ame wasn’t sure why at first - not that it wasn’t nice to see her or anything - but by the time he’d been fed the entire story, a couple of hours and as many questions as he dared to interrupt with later, he understood. There were some things Jinx couldn’t answer, some things she couldn’t explain, and Callie picked up the slack and filled in where she was lacking. 

He was given four years’ worth of as much information as he could handle. His little sister had been a secret agent all this time, working with the Squid Sisters to fight a menace that the vast majority of inkling-kind didn’t believe existed. Things fell into place for him while he listened to Jinx explain about DJ Octavio, how she’d had an existential crisis right around the holidays, how much sleep she’d lost. Suddenly her exhaustion, her paranoid reaction to being snuck up on at the train station, all of it made sense as the pieces slotted together.

Two pairs of eyes watched him so closely while he processed it all. While he tried to decide how he felt about it. The silence felt deafening to Jinx, impatient and uncomfortable, a mild headache forming as she squirmed in her chair. 

“Would you say something?” She blurted when it got too heavy, desperation barely held back. “Please?”

Despite his best efforts, Ame scoffed lightly. “What do you want me to say, Jinx?” He genuinely had no idea what to make of it all. “You put yourself in mortal danger the second you stepped foot in Inkopolis, continued to do so, and didn’t even tell your family about it?” 

Almost immediately, Jinx shrank back, pulling her knees in close to the chair and shrugging her shoulders up. “Ame, I told you, I  _ couldn’t _ \--”

“--It’s supposed to be a secret, it isn’t her fault,” Callie reminded him. “Honestly, we shouldn’t even be telling you now.” 

“Jinx trusts me,” he stated with all the confidence in the world. Maybe a little disdain, for the fact that she  _ hadn’t  _ trusted him til things had already gone way too far. “At least, I thought she did.” 

There Jinx was, wanting to be relieved to talk to her brother after all this time, hoping that getting everything off her chest would make her feel lighter. So long she’d been full to bursting with information about a life that she could only share with three other people, so long all she wanted was to ask Ame for advice - unable to do so without breaking the rules. Now that she finally had, she just felt worse.

“How...how am I supposed to feel, Jinx?” Ame started in again, and she couldn’t read his tone. Her best guess was disappointment? Hurt? “What if something had happened down there? What if you got  _ hurt _ ?”

Well, it wasn’t like she’d gotten away unscathed.

“Who was gonna tell me, huh?” His gaze never left her, she could feel the weight of it bearing down on her shoulders. “I asked  _ everyone  _ if they’d seen you. No one knew where to find you, not even your girlfriend. Do you have any idea what that would’ve been like for me, if you never came home? If you just disappeared? Did you think about what that might do to your family?” 

No, she hadn’t. It seemed like everyone just had words that felt like rocks in the pit of her stomach lately, instead of comforting lies she wished they would tell her instead. Things like ‘it’s okay’ and ‘you did your best.’ ‘I missed you.’ When Ame didn’t continue, Jinx realized he was waiting for an answer.

“...No,” she mumbled, eyes fixed on her knees. Callie’s hand had been resting on one, a barely-comforting presence. She could barely focus on it with how awful she felt. 

A moment of uncomfortable silence passed before Ame spoke again. Every word coming out of his mouth hovered dangerously between disappointed and angry - he had to try and rein it in. “What  _ were  _ you thinking?” He challenged.

It aggravated the odd scar on her face when she cried. She had learned that already, but somehow the message didn’t reach her brain before the question sunk in - her vision blurred quickly, tears brimming and spilling from her eyes without her consent. She felt her best friend’s hand squeeze her knee gently, felt the burning streaks on her cheek and chin, like someone had poured scalding hot water over her. All of it happened so quickly and she was sobbing before she knew it.

She hadn’t cried like that in so long. It made her throat feel too tight, her chest ached, she couldn’t get enough air. She couldn’t get the breath she needed to tell him that she didn’t know.

Ame didn’t let his little sister curl in on herself - he was up from the couch immediately, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her with ease. Jinx automatically curled up against him when he sat back down, wrapped her arms around his neck when her shoulders started shaking, muffling her sobs and apologies against his shoulder. He rubbed her back and tucked her head beneath his chin and Callie watched, concern plain as day on her face. 

This was good, despite how it looked. It was good for Jinx to get it out, and Callie was happy she could be there to help. That didn’t make it any easier to watch. 

It took awhile for her to calm down, for her sobs to fall back into soft whimpers and occasional hitches in her breathing. She kept whispering apologies through it all, to which her brother just responded with a gentle shushing. Finally she sat up, scrubbing at the left side of her face with the underside of her wrist and taking a deep breath through the nose. 

“I know what you were thinking.” Ame spoke before she could, in that older sibling way that he read her mind. “You wanted to do the right thing. You wanted to help.”

Jinx refused to start crying again, despite the emotion welling in her chest. She swallowed hard, reddened eyes flickering toward the idol sitting on the floor in front of them. Callie offered her a tender little smile, a small nod. 

“It’s what you do,” she said. “It’s why you’re such an asset to the NSS.” 

“Fat lot of good it did me, huh?” Jinx’s voice was thick and she cleared her throat, shaking her head. She took another deep breath, trying to dig through the mess that had been her feelings over the last few weeks and put them into words. “I couldn’t save you, I got this… whatever it is--” a moment to gesture at her face “--and Marie hates me. Obviously, I was such a big help.”

“Stop that,” Callie frowned. “You were plenty help. Gramps says you saved him and Agent 8 from a… giant blender, right? That’s not nothing--”  _ And Marie doesn’t hate you _ , she wanted to add. Better not to go down that particular road.

Ame kept his arms loosely draped around his sister, blue eyes fixed to the discolored side of her face. It was still damp with tears she hadn’t smeared away. “How...how exactly did that happen, anyway?”

Jinx was shaking her head before he could get the whole sentence out, pressing a knuckle against her mouth in thought. “Fuck if I know.” 

“Oh, Gramps told us--” Callie chimed in. “He says after you hit your head, Agent 8 carried you up to the surface. He said you just got into some of that weird ink down there.” 

It made her head hurt trying to remember if that was right or not, a sharp pain that shot behind her right eye and throbbed stubbornly in her temple. “Yeah…” It didn’t  _ sound  _ right, but she had no way of contesting it - just a vague sensory memory of stinging, burning, writhing ink and a smell like heavy duty cleaning supplies.

“You could always ask this Agent 8 person about it,” Ame pointed out. “Do you have any way to reach them?” 

Oh. As a matter of fact, she did. Jinx moved away from him, getting up so she could pull her phone out of her pocket. She paced back and forth while she pulled up Bernard’s contact information. “He was asking if I needed a roommate,” she said distantly. “I worked a shift at GrizzCo with him just the other day.” 

Callie perked up at the idea. “He’s been staying at Cuttlefish Cabin since you guys got back to the surface! He’s a pretty quiet guy. And it might be good for you to have someone around, y’know?” 

After a solid year and a half of being alone, even Jinx could agree through a mountain of self-pity that she could benefit from having company. Before everything started to roll rapidly downhill, she’d always had a friend close by - be it her siblings, Callie, or Marie. Trying to adjust to life on the surface again might just require it, and she would much rather it be someone she didn’t have to make up excuses for if she had to do some field work for the NSS. 

Ame fidgeted though, his brow furrowing like he wanted to protest. “I mean, talking to him and rooming with him are...two really different things.” He tried to sound as non-confrontational as possible, but his ‘big brother’ mode was still kicked into high gear. “Just. Just be careful. He’s still a total stranger.”

Truth be told, Jinx was too tired to give it a second thought. She’d been so reckless for so long, really, what was one more thing on the pile? She unlocked her phone.

[jinx] hey do you still need a roommate?

[jinx] just let me know when you can move in

\---

If nothing else, Agent 8 moving in proved to be a decent distraction. 

When the addition to the lease had been squared away a week later, it became apparent that Bernard didn’t have much to bring into the apartment. Just a backpack and a rusted old toolbox, tucked under his arm as he stepped inside and took a look around. He wasn’t really used to having this much space - Jinx assured him it wasn’t that big, but the kitchen alone had more floor space than Cuttlefish Cabin, so it worked out just fine for him. He made mental notes of where everything was as he picked his way through.

“I’m gonna go food shopping in a couple days,” Jinx promised, hovering in the doorway of his new bedroom while the octoling set his bag and toolbox down in one corner. “Is there...anything in particular you want?”

Well, he needed a mattress he supposed, but he could figure that one out on his own. He mapped the room, already planning the layout. “I will make list for you,” he said. “And will be giving money, also.” 

When he turned to look at her in the silence that followed, she found herself feeling...small beneath his gaze. She wondered if intense stares like that were an octoling thing - she’d never known any others, so she had no frame of reference. 

Bernard, meanwhile, was debating if her trying to kill him had just been a one-time thing. A fluke, circumstantial. She didn’t seem like a cold-blooded murderer - she couldn’t even hold eye contact with him for longer than a few seconds.

“Okay, well.” Jinx nodded awkwardly, tapping her palms against her thighs. “I’ll uh. I’ll let you get settled. If you need anything just…”

Silver eyes watched her for another unnerving moment before he turned toward his bag again, crouching down so he could start pulling clothes out of it. 

“...yeah.”

Distracting maybe, but definitely a little uncomfortable.

Barring that, Jinx spent the next couple of weeks trying to slog through her day to day life - making an actual real effort to get things back to normal. She spent a majority of her time splatting salmonids for Mr. Grizz; it kept her busy and it was good money. Keeping in touch with anyone still felt like a chore, but she forced herself to do it, even if it was agony just to type out a simple ‘hello’ to her best friend. 

In the early hours of the morning when she couldn’t sleep, she climbed to the tops of the tallest buildings in the city and listened to the ambient noises all around her, trying to remember where she belonged. How she fit into all of it. 

Sometimes in the middle of the night, she opened a message thread that hadn’t been touched in almost two years and considered starting a new conversation. Every time without fail, she got caught up on the last message that was ever sent.

_ [Marie, 1:49 AM]: jinx please come home _

She closed the app when her vision grew too blurry to make out the words anymore.

At the end of the month, Ame convinced her to get into a video call with the family. It took some preparation - Jinx had been avoiding mirrors for weeks, avoiding any reflective surface that might reveal the damage to the right side of her face. She wouldn’t even walk past stores on the right side of the street, lest she catch her reflection against their windows. The last thing she wanted was for her first reaction to it, to be caught on a call with siblings who’d missed her.

A few hours before the call, she locked herself in the bathroom and forced herself to stare at her face in the mirror. Knuckles blanching as she gripped the edges of the sink, chest tight and aching, studying the details that she’d always recognized as hers - and familiarizing herself with the new ones. The awful ones. The washed-out splash of teal like old, dried ink that stained her cheek, part of her brow, her eyelid, her ear. The black mask across her eyes stopped abruptly where the scar edged toward the bridge of her nose, barely past the inner corner of her eye, like it had been scrubbed away. 

Through a haze she couldn’t name, Jinx tried to tell herself it wasn’t that bad. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t remember how it happened, no matter how long she glared at it. It definitely felt a lot worse than it looked! Any sort of touch or contact or  _ light breeze  _ felt like razors across her skin, but maybe it added some kind of visual appeal. She could totally make ‘Traumatized’ the new fresh look. 

She wondered if Callie would laugh at that kind of morbid humor. Chances were good, though, that it would just make her worry more. 

Time slipped away from her until Bernard knocked on the bathroom door, at which point she sucked in as deep a breath as she could and shook her head free of her spiraling thoughts. She pulled on a clean shirt, a hoodie that she could use to hide at least her ears, and plastered a smile on her face as she settled down on her bed and started the call with her siblings back in Barnacle Bay. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the time you guys take to read and drop comments for me, it is very much appreciated. We'll see you in a week or two! Stay fresh!


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No compromise and no second best,  
> There’s no stopping now, this weight on my chest  
> I won’t settle down, won’t settle for less.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Splatfest weekend~ 
> 
> One very important note in this chapter: the name for the cafe comes from nastymajesty's /wonderful/ story, Within Palace Walls (and is used with permission from the author). If you haven't given that fic a look, I highly recommend it - Majesty's work and characters have so much love poured into them!
> 
> I hope the chapter finds you well!

There were only so many times in one day that she could check her phone. Marie pushed the limits of that, especially considering she wasn’t actually doing anything. She didn’t send any messages, didn’t make a call, never opened any social media. It didn’t help that she had nothing but downtime these last couple of weeks, when she arguably needed work the most - needed distractions to keep her from having to think too hard about things.

About Jinx.

It didn’t stop her from opening that thread, the one string of messages that recorded an entire relationship - all the way from conception to what could only be called death. It had to be that. If it wasn’t, then she couldn’t move on until she knew for sure. Marie as a person, ever since she was old enough to form opinions on the world, had never liked loose ends. She needed things to be inexorable, set in stone.

She thought for sure that where she stood with Agent 3 was ‘it’s over.’ 

Which, naturally, must have been the reason she kept reading the last set of texts ever sent between the two of them. 

Marie spent more time than was appropriate scrolling back through the fairly one-sided conversation, the one that had lasted for three whole days before she gave up trying to reach out. Back to the last text she ever got from Jinx. 

_[Jinx]: im so sorry_

Jinx knew she was leaving. She knew she was going to disappear without a trace, and she probably knew she might never come back. It chewed at Marie’s insides, left her feeling raw and bitter. _Vulnerable_ . She couldn’t be vulnerable, couldn’t be soft and give in - it was just like she told Callie. There was no way she would let her former partner off the hook by just _apologizing_. 

What did Marie get out of that? It was like telling Jinx that it was perfectly fine she’d gone gallivanting off into a dangerous situation, almost getting herself killed - that it was _fine_ of her to just come back and expect everything would go back to normal.

It felt like she was dealing with a toddler, one who’d been caught with their hand in the cookie jar and needed a good scolding. Maybe a time-out. Jinx could come out of her room once she’d had ample time to think about the consequences of her actions, an undecided stretch of days that was hanging on Marie’s judgement call.

One she had yet to make. 

_Listen to yourself. You’re being ridiculous._

It didn’t help matters any that Callie, for the most part, went on like it was business as usual. When she came back from the set in the afternoons it was all chipper conversation, talking about the cast and what shenanigans they got up to off-camera that day. She didn’t talk about Jinx, and Marie hated how much she _wanted_ her to because she knew they still spent a lot of time together. It added to her frustrations, already piled so high because she had no idea what was going on. 

_What’s the thing on her face? Has she had any more blackouts? Is she doing okay with Agent 8 as her roommate? Is she in pain? Is she sad? Does she miss me?_

Ridiculous, she was being ridiculous. 

The more she thought about it though, the more idiotic it all sounded - and the fact of the matter was that she could clean up this whole mess with just a few simple words. Just one text, that’s all it would take. Was she really so proud? Too much so to reach out and just... offer to talk? Almost two months had passed since she’d even _seen_ Agent 3, and that felt like perhaps plenty of time to leave those loose threads just fluttering in the wind.

Maybe she didn’t have to apologize yet. She could go on being hurt and upset, but she could look Jinx in the eye and be an adult about it. Was that what they called baby steps…? 

“Is there like, a fresh new tabloid take you’re waiting for or something?” Callie broke through her swirling thoughts when Marie checked her phone for what must have been the hundred thousandth time that day. 

She hummed, giving herself a moment to think up a white lie she could tell. “Off the Hook’s dropping a new music video sometime today, I promised Marina I’d give a review.” If she told the truth, she knew she’d never hear the end of it - Callie would make that face and look at her in that _way_ , and she just didn’t need that right now. 

Not when she had finally worked up the nerve to tap out a text message. 

\---

Seven weeks. Jinx had started to mark each day as it passed, a whiteboard calendar in the kitchen that Bernard scribbled notes on in Octarian and she crossed off the squares with a thick black line each morning. While it was a new habit, it was already helpful - even if she lost track of the time, the day was always certain, and after a month of uncertainty she was grateful for even the smallest improvement. 

It had been seven whole weeks since she breached the surface. Seven weeks since she felt the warmth of the sun on her face again, since she expected to go back to business as usual, and since her entire life had fallen to pieces around her. Even if someone held a splattershot to her head, she couldn’t really answer how she was feeling about everything anymore. 

Inkopolis was different. She was different. It was just something she had to accept, despite every fiber of her being screaming out against it and trying to fight back. Once upon a time in a life that no longer felt like hers, Marie had told her that change wasn’t necessarily a bad thing - that maybe she should learn to embrace it. Instead, Jinx had clenched her teeth and balled her fists, and the first punch she threw proved disastrous. 

It was time to try a different approach.

A hobby that Jinx picked up - and incidentally, learned she really had a knack for - was fixing things around the apartment that her landlord couldn’t be bothered with. Things like leaky pipes, windows that wouldn’t open, and clogged drains. (She didn’t dare touch the appliances, Bernard seemed very protective of them.) One afternoon while she was climbing up onto the kitchen counter, fixing a loose hinge in the cabinet and considering her next steps forward, her phone buzzed against her hip. 

In retrospect, checking her phone while she was trying to do home repair wasn’t her best idea. When she glimpsed the sender from the corner of her eye, she whipped her head back so fast it smacked off the cabinet door and nearly destabilized her. Catching herself before she could slip into her squid form and flop off the counter, Jinx shifted and never took her eyes away from her phone. 

[ _New message from: Marie_ ]

Jinx’s stomach churned in discomfort, excitement, fear - there was no response she could land on that would stick, and she hadn’t even opened the text. She had no idea what it said, no clue what she _expected_ it to contain. Maybe it was a fluke, maybe Marie’s phone was glitching out - sending a repeat of the last text...from a year and a half ago. That was possible, right? The alternative wasn’t pleasant to think about. She’d hate to open it and find a paragraph of angry words chewing her out. 

Then again, that wasn’t Marie’s style.

It took every ounce of courage she could scrounge up - plus a few slow, deep breaths - for her to unlock her phone. She closed her eyes tightly while anxiety broiled in the pit of her stomach, willing herself to calm down before finally looking at the message she was dreading.

[Marie]: Hey

Dear cod, she felt like she was going to throw up all over again. Shoulders slumping forward, Jinx exhaled and let her phone drop onto her lap. All of that work just to get such an anti-climactic, casual text? It was almost worse than any scenario she could have come up with on her own. Didn’t Marie know that her words carried weight, no matter what they were? Didn’t she _know_ that Jinx felt like she was walking a tightrope these last few weeks…? 

That string of thought was so presumptuous, when she should have been figuring out what on earth to send back. She was getting ahead of herself, so zoned out she barely heard the front door open. 

“ _Did you fix the cabinet?_ ” 

Octarian took longer to process and translate in her abruptly cluttered brain, her response taking maybe a second or two longer than it should have. “ _Should be._ ” She didn’t look up from the phone in her lap long enough to see her roommate walk past, and she was definitely not in the mood for conversation - what was great about Bernard was that he was perfectly content with silence. 

Jinx took another deep breath, picking her phone back up and chewing lightly at her lower lip. 

[Jinx]: hi

Cod, that sounded so lame. 

[Jinx]: what’s up

Even more lame! Great! Maybe it would have been easier if she had more to work with, more to use to gauge just what she was about to get into. Sitting there on the kitchen counter, she tried to mentally prepare herself a little better. Because this was it, wasn’t it? This was Marie reaching out, trying to talk to her. The chance she had been aching for, one she could either pine over or accept that she was never going to get. 

Either that, or it was Callie stealing her cousin’s phone.

She’d like to think Callie wouldn’t do that to her, not right now.

Jinx lost track of how much time passed that she sat there, staring at her phone and watching the three little ‘typing’ dots appear and disappear. Seconds moved like years. Maybe that was sort of dramatic of her, but when she was trying so hard to pull her life back together, she felt like she had earned it. 

Just a little melodrama. As a treat.

[Marie]: Let’s talk.

Cod, these short messages were absolute torture.

[Marie]: Are you free to meet up?

Jinx had no idea how long her hearts had been taking turns beating against the inside of her ink shell, like they wanted to break out. She didn’t know if it was fear or excitement, but whatever it was, her brain short-circuited for a moment in the middle of trying to process the question. 

On the one hand, of course she was free. What else was she doing today? The cabinet was fixed, GrizzCo was closed. There were no previously-made lunch plans or anything like that. 

On the other hand… _was_ she free, though? Really? Surely there was something else she could think of, some way to avoid having a conversation with Marie that she’d been both aching desperately for and at the same time dreading with every fiber of her being. Every day that passed where they didn’t speak just made it worse on both sides of the argument - made her miss her friend, her _partner_ , while simultaneously letting her breathe a sigh of relief because...

Conversations took words. She was horrible with words. That hadn’t changed. 

[Jinx]: sure

[Jinx]: where do you wanna meet

It was already hard enough, typing out text messages casually like that. Like nothing was wrong, and the pair of them hadn’t spent almost two months as total strangers. Her thumbs hesitated over every letter, flexing before each new word. What was Jinx supposed to do when they were face to face? Suffer, she guessed, since she definitely couldn’t take it back.

[Marie]: There’s a cafe beside Deca Tower.

[Marie]: Brew-Tea-Ful. Seen it?

[Jinx]: yeah

[Marie]: Can you be there in an hour?

She had no idea when the trembling had started up. That was a fairly new development in her life, and she wondered vaguely if it was just a Feature now. Would she just start randomly shaking every time something happened to her? If she saw some fresh shoes at the store, would her body just spasm uncontrollably? She wasn’t really fond of that idea, and yet there she was anyway, hands gripping her phone so the shaking wouldn’t send it clattering to the floor. 

[Jinx]: yeah

[Marie]: See you then.

[Jinx]: yeah

Jinx set the phone down carefully on the counter beside her hip, her poor overstimulated brain buzzing over the almost-conversation she’d just had with Marie. No one thought jumped out to grab her attention, just a tangled mess of them that she couldn’t even begin to pull apart - she didn’t know what was supposed to happen next. In the span of just a few minutes things had gone from her being positive she would never see the woman she pined after again, to her having exactly one hour to prepare for the exact opposite. 

None of it connected, nothing made sense, and her temple throbbed painfully in an act of rebellion when she tried to put the pieces together. 

When she exhaled at last, her trembling form gave way to an inky purple squid - she slipped with a very wet _schlorp-SPLAT_ sound onto the kitchen floor.

\---

The only sounds for an uncomfortably long time were ambient ones. Background noise. Ceramic clinking against itself, the hum of the espresso machine, gentle chatter, and raindrops lightly tapping against the windows that stretched from ceiling to floor. Somewhere overhead, a speaker offered up distant pop tunes that Jinx couldn’t make out the words to past the constant jumble of thoughts that she didn’t say out loud.

Across the table from her sat Marie, recognizable face and tentacles covered by mask and hat respectively, and just as silent as her companion. She grazed the backs of her fingernails lightly, contemplatively, back and forth against the mug in front of her, still warm though its contents were already beginning to cool off. They sat together, tucked in toward the back of the coffee shop, each inkling waiting for the other to speak.

After all, they had shown up under the premise that they were going to talk. 

So far, neither had said a word. 

Jinx, who wanted nothing more than to apologize, than to explain that she _had_ no real explanation, that she had no excuse. She opened her mouth and closed it again several times before drawing her lower lip beneath her beak in temporary resignation. 

Marie, who had her own apologies lined up and ready to go, though nothing sounded open-ended enough. She still wanted answers, still needed closure of her own, unsure how to be vulnerable but firm at the same time. Those kinds of platitudes had never really stuck with her personality, grating awkwardly against the grain. Instead, amber eyes kept falling to the unpleasant teal scar against Jinx’s otherwise-brown skin. 

Jinx imagined that Callie would tell her it was supposed to be awkward, this first meeting after so much time apart. 

She looked at Marie and saw radiance, honesty, loyalty. She saw countless nights staying up too late and playing games as teenagers, moments they could spare where they weren’t soldiers or pop stars or secret agents. First kisses, family gatherings. She looked at Marie and she saw a home that her hearts ached for. 

Someone had to say something. 

_What were you thinking?_ Jinx heard the question in her brother’s voice, echoing at the edge of her thoughts, all the ones she couldn’t separate. 

Inhale. Exhale. 

“I was just...trying to do the right thing,” she said at last, her voice catching at the last word. Warmth crept up into her face when she confessed the truth, the one that encompassed everything as easily as possible. She stared into her half-empty cup and braced herself for a response. 

Though it wasn’t clear on whether or not the confession was an apology, Marie couldn’t help but envy how easy it was for Jinx to show her weakness like that. Deep down, though, past all of her sore spots and her anger - no matter how justified - she knew it wasn't a lie. She supposed she had always known, even when she had asked herself ‘why’ more times than she cared to admit after her partner had disappeared. Marie knew the answer, she just... didn't want to swallow her pride and admit the truth.

The truth was that she couldn’t keep punishing Jinx. 

Carefully, almost like she didn’t trust her own hand, she slid her fingers across the tabletop and brushed the tips gently against Jinx’s knuckles. The younger inkling’s skin tightened as she tensed. 

“I know.” 

Whether it was acceptance or forgiveness, neither knew for sure. 

It was definitely a place to start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely sure when the next chapter will be out, as I'm starting back work on Tuesday, but I will have it just as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience, stay fresh!


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Tell me what you know.” 
> 
> Fortunately for her, Bernard wasn’t the type to keep secrets if he didn’t think it was worth the trouble. Leaning his hip against the counter, the octoling spoke as casually as though he were discussing the weather.
> 
> “Agent 3 tried to kill me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dusts off this fanfic*
> 
> Oh, hello. Don't mind me. 
> 
> Big huge thanks to Chaotic and LittleSkittlez for the lovely comments that inspired me to start working on this again! On the downside, there won't be a HypnoTech update this week - I've got a lot going on, and the next chapter isn't ready yet, but I'm going to try to alternate chapters until that's done and get this ball rolling again. <3
> 
> Enjoy!

_ Chapter 10 _

  
  


It’s not a happily ever after. It was never going to be, not straight out of the gate like that. 

After nearly two full years apart, with the added bonus of two months of silent treatment, saying Jinx and Marie had to take their rebuilding slowly was downplaying it a bit. They didn’t move back in together, considering the roommate situation Jinx was in with Bernard - say nothing about the unfortunate truth that they really didn’t know each other anymore. There were plenty of visits back and forth for the first week or two, fueled by a sudden fiery rush of determination to get them back on the right track.

It was something of a pet project, and they barely had a foundation started - when they tried to get into the steady flow of a conversation after the awkward not-apology at the cafe, they couldn’t seem to get a rhythm going that both of them could dance to. 

Marie wanted answers. She wanted information, she wanted to know about what happened beneath the surface, she had a million and one questions bubbling up inside of her that she threw out as nonchalantly as she could over the course of the next couple of weeks. She swore up and down, it was like pulling jellyfish teeth trying to get anything out of her-- friend? Girlfriend?  _ Person _ \-- that was more than one or two words long. It was even worse seeing Jinx shift and squirm before she opened her mouth, like she was reliving moments in time she never wanted to repeat. 

Worse yet, the amount of times “I don’t know” came out as a response. 

None of it made sense and it pushed against Marie’s nerves in a way Jinx never had before. She kept her composure, swallowed it down and reminded herself again and again that it wasn’t Jinx’s fault. It couldn’t be. 

“Does it hurt?” The idol posed the question out of nowhere, breaking the silence one afternoon while Jinx stood at the kitchen counter and fumbled with the coffee filters. 

She nearly nudged a mug off the counter with her elbow when she turned toward Marie, the tension in her shoulders impossible to miss. “What?” Her thumb idly flicked at the edge of the unopened filter, still trying to get the material apart. 

Marie studied her, took in the way she held herself, the slight squint to her right eye, the unnatural splash of teal spreading from the middle of Jinx’s face and out to the tip of her ear. There was no tactful way to ask, so she just… asked.

“Your face. Does it hurt?” 

Desperate to avoid the topic that made her stomach churn uncomfortably, Jinx cracked a queasy smile. “Why, is it killing you?” 

She didn’t laugh at her own terrible joke. More importantly, neither did Marie. She sighed instead, almost completely masking the disappointment she must have found in a dissatisfying answer - but one she had expected. 

Marie moved from her seat at the kitchen table, stepping around it and gently taking the still-folded coffee filter from Jinx’s shaky hands. Sheepishly, the shorter girl shifted back and leaned against the table, ducking her head just enough to make her look like a kicked puppy. It wasn’t like she took pleasure in Marie’s frustration - but what could her time underground, and consequently the ramifications of it, possibly have to do with their relationship?

It seemed like completely unhelpful information. Things Jinx would rather just forget, that Marie clearly didn’t want her to.

With the coffee finally brewing just a moment later, Marie turned to face her again and leaned back against the counter. Almost a mirror to Jinx’s pose, except she folded her arms and held her head up. Aside from the bubbling and hissing of the percolator, silence settled in between them.

Waiting. Marie was waiting for her to say something. 

Jinx swallowed. 

“Yes,” she said after another long, agonizing minute. “It hurts.” 

“How much?” Marie didn’t miss a beat, taking the inch Jinx gave her and gearing up to run a mile with it. 

“...Depends? I can’t. I can’t touch it.” Every word felt like burning coming up out of her throat. She hated this, and she didn’t know  _ why  _ it was so difficult, but she just. Didn’t want to talk about it. “Touch hurts. Wind hurts. Sun kinda hurts.” 

Talking hurt, too, but not enough that she couldn’t get used to it. From the way Marie’s expression softened, she probably guessed as much. 

Mercifully, the Squid Sister turned to pour coffee before asking her next question. It was hard to believe five minutes had passed already - still, as she fixed both drinks up with cream and sugar (or nothing at all), the look on her face was thoughtful. 

She passed the lighter cup to Jinx, who accepted with a very quiet “thanks” and held it too tightly in her hands. 

“How exactly did it happen?” 

For all that she wanted to lament about that exact issue, Jinx just grimaced and stared down into her coffee. “That’s the million-dollar question, huh?” She quipped without thinking about it first. Lifting the mug to her lips, she took too big of a sip and scalded her tongue in an effort to cover up the snark in her tone. She really had to learn to stop drinking hot beverages so fast.

Quiet. There were so many holes in the conversation where silence rested, too many for her liking but what could she do? It was almost bad enough for her to wish that Marie would chew her out at last. Everything up until this point had been pleasant enough, though how much of it was platitudes and acting, Jinx didn’t know for sure. She’d like to think it was all genuine, but how could she be positive?

She wasn’t sure of anything, these days. 

“Hmm.” Marie sipped at her own black coffee, her brow furrowed. “Agent 8 doesn’t have any intel?” 

“If he does, he hasn’t passed it on.” Not that she’s tried to prod Bernard for any information on what happened underground. The thought crossed her mind briefly, until she decided that the way he looked at her sometimes said that maybe he didn’t want to talk about it. Jinx took a deep breath then, folding one arm around herself. “I tried asking the Captain, but he won’t tell me anything.” 

Amber eyes lifted quickly from the swirling contents of her cup and Marie looked puzzled. “He won’t?” Though really, with as little information as he gave her and Callie, she probably shouldn’t be that surprised. She shuffled through a mental checklist of anyone involved in the mess that she knew alarmingly little about, considering how close she was to Jinx. 

When Jinx tightened her jaw, the look on her face was rife with bitterness. Thankfully, her coffee was just sweet enough to balance it out. “No one will.” She said quietly. The first time she actually worked up the nerve to text Marina and ask about it, she’d gotten an evasive response. She didn’t even bother with Pearl. “Captain just said it was ‘for the best’ and to ‘not worry about it.’” 

“Advice you took to heart, I see?” 

It was a light ribbing, teasing like they always used to do, but Jinx’s response was steeped in morbid amusement. “Yup, that’s me - the most chill, laid back squid in the whole city. Not worrying is my talent.” 

Marie sighed, a bit softer than before, setting her cup on the counter behind her and moving forward to reach for Jinx’s hand instead. “I’ll dig, if you’d like,” she offered, though it was just a teeny bit for selfish reasons. She wanted to understand, so that maybe she could navigate these waters better. “I’ve got the ‘granddaughter advantage.’ I’m sure I can squeeze something out of him.” 

Jinx still wasn’t used to the touch that had once been familiar and comforting to her, tensing just a fraction when Marie’s hand met hers. It was foggy, distant like a whisper from miles away, but the words she heard were still recognizable in that gesture:  _ I’m here. _

Marie was here. Marie was here with her, closer than they’d been in almost two years, and Jinx was still struggling to process that. Lower lip pulled beneath her teeth, she fixed her gaze onto the pale fingers curled carefully around her own and took a deep breath. 

“You don’t have to. But thanks.”

There were so many things she had planned to say in this moment, the one she had been aching for - how much she regretted leaving, how she never went a day without thinking of Marie, how she would swear never to do anything like that again if she could just earn forgiveness. It was rehearsed until she found what she hoped were the perfect words, and now that they were finally here every single well-chosen syllable escaped her. 

Instead, she said something she’d been holding back for so long now, it fell from her tongue like a weight she’d been carrying. “I  _ missed  _ you.” Hard to speak, but as sincere as Jinx ever was. 

Brown eyes lifted to meet with amber, closer than she remembered them being just a moment ago. Marie shifted into her space subtly until Jinx could smell her perfume, the one she used to wear when the younger inkling buried her nose into her partner’s neck, the one that reminded her of home. It took all of her self control not to lean forward, but she didn’t dare. She had to let Marie take the lead, set the pace; she didn’t want to overstep her boundaries. 

She didn’t know what those boundaries were yet, but what better time to learn than on the job?

Marie’s fingers slipped away from Jinx’s, her freed hand resting chastely at her partner’s waist while the other came up to caress her unmarred cheek. “Me, too.”

When their lips met the first time, it was featherlight and unsure. Testing the waters to make sure that they both felt ready to take that next step. It had, after all, only been a couple of weeks. There was barely a pause between that and a real kiss, though - falling into a pattern like they’d never stopped doing it. Jinx eased into it as hesitance dissolved away, instinct taking over and reminding her just how much she loved kissing Marie, who pulled her in by the waist and let her know in no uncertain terms that the feeling was mutual. 

For two people so far away from each other for so long, they wasted no time making up for it and closing the minimal space left between them. Jinx slipped her arms over Marie’s shoulders and leaned into her until she could feel hearts beating, her knees going weak as lips met over and over again in a one-sided conversation that she had been dying to have. 

_ Marie, my Marie. I missed you so much. I love you. _

Even the stolen breaths between each soft kiss wasn’t enough to avoid the need for real oxygen. Breaking apart for air was the hardest thing she’d had to do in months, but somehow, they separated.

For a moment, they stood like that, catching breaths and locking gazes. In that instant, everything was just so blissfully normal that they could almost forget any time had passed. Marie brushed her thumb over Jinx’s cheek. Jinx pressed a hand against the back of Marie’s neck, toying with her shorter tentacles, reveling in the way the butterflies surged in her gut. It felt like being a teenager again, with nothing to worry about and all the time in the world to spend in awe of the fact that Marie wanted to be with her. 

When she moved back in for another kiss, desperate to chase that feeling, Marie lifted her other hand - instinctively - and caught her partner’s face between her palms.

The illusion of normalcy shattered immediately.

From that simple touch against the scarred side of her face, pain seared so hot that when Jinx opened her eyes, she only saw white. The kind of pain that caused her to cry out and shove Marie backward, away from her, hands trembling - she had to stop herself from reaching up and clutching at her face. No, she couldn’t, that would only make it worse. She grabbed the edge of the table instead, blunted nails digging in hard enough to leave tiny scratches on the wooden surface. 

Marie caught and steadied herself quickly, but it took her a few seconds to make sense of what had happened. “Jinx, what--” Until she put two and two together, and realized what she’d done. It was an accident, a reflex she’d followed so many times before, and she was so caught up in the moment of having what she wanted in her arms again. She didn’t think.

The idol took a deep breath, reaching back across the space to rest a hand on Jinx’s trembling shoulder. “Jinx--” 

Before her fingertips could even make contact, the younger inkling’s head whipped up. “ _ Don’t fucking touch me _ !” She snarled, all teeth and ferocity the likes of which Marie had never seen from her before.

Well, that wasn’t true. She’d seen it once. Right after their reunion in Octo Canyon, when she truly thought Jinx was going to attack her. 

Whatever this thing on her face was, how it affected her, it invoked an emotion in Marie that she couldn’t quite place. She would quite like to introduce the cause to the business end of her charger.

The expression fell away from Jinx’s face when she saw the shock etched across Marie’s, hearing the echo of the words that had just come from her mouth and already berating herself for them. That wasn’t what she meant, that wasn’t what she wanted to say. Her mind kicked into overdrive automatically, drowning her in anxieties - she messed up. Marie was going to leave, and she would deserve it, she crossed a line, it was an  _ accident  _ and she was acting like it was a personal affront. That pure, wonderful bliss that had started to burn fell back, smothered by the idea that she’d lost control. If one touch was all it took to send her on the defensive, what did that mean for her going forward?

The splitting pain in her skull hadn’t faded and it wasn’t helping matters any.

Before she could keep spiraling, Jinx shook her head and nearly knocked over a chair in her hurry to escape to the bathroom. She barely threw a choked-out “sorry” over her shoulder.

Still standing there in shock, Marie heard the bathroom door close and the soft click of the lock. She was left there, arms still poised like she was holding someone in between them, wondering what on earth just happened. For just a minute, she thought everything was back to normal. She’d let herself entertain the idea that it was finally time to pick up where they left off, like the last couple of years had been nothing but a bad dream.

The front door opened before she could come to any conclusions and she turned to see Agent 8 coming in, a sturdy-looking rectangular case in his hand. He tucked his key into the front pocket of his jeans and locked eyes with her for a few seconds, as though he was trying to discern why she would be there. 

“...Agent 3 is not being home?” His tone was difficult to read, it always had been, but he sounded vaguely surprised.

Marie stared back at him for a beat or two. In the moment of chaos, she completely forgot he lived here. 

“She’s here,” she said. Then, as pieces started clicking back together in her brain, she stood up a little straighter. What was his name, again-- “Bernard. You were with her underground, weren’t you?”

The octoling didn’t say anything at first, sizing her up like she had an ulterior motive - an accusation she didn’t much care for, even if she was projecting. He slipped past her, setting the case down on the table as he went and following the smell of coffee to the fresh pot on the counter. Silently he grabbed a mug from the cabinet and poured himself a cup, all the while Marie just  _ waited _ . 

Being ignored was definitely not on her list of favorite hobbies, but when it came down to it, she was more or less a stranger in his living space. She had to be patient if she wanted results.

“Something happened to her down there.” She folded her arms, watching him like a hawk. 

Bernard’s silver eyes glanced back to meet with hers again and he still kept quiet, like he was deciding whether or not this conversation was worth having. 

Unfortunately for him, Marie wasn’t the type to take ‘no’ for an answer. 

“Tell me what you know.” 

Fortunately for  _ her,  _ Bernard wasn’t the type to keep secrets if he didn’t think it was worth the trouble. Leaning his hip against the counter, the octoling spoke as casually as though he were discussing the weather.

“Agent 3 tried to kill me.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dUn DUUUUUNNN--
> 
> I mean, we already knew Agent 3 and Agent 8 threw down. It's fine. It's fiiiiine.
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! Stay tuned for more!


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be up earlier, but I got involved with some projects, BUT IT'S HERE!!! Happy Valentine's Day, here's some of... this. :'D

_Chapter 11_

All things considered, Bernard had been settling into his new home fairly well. He couldn’t say he’d made many friends yet, because he definitely only had one - sort of, though that friend seemed more interested in besting him in turf wars - but he was more or less comfortable there. Living with Agent 3 turned out to be a solid decision, as well. Jinx didn’t bother him. He barely saw her unless they crossed paths in the kitchen, and she spent a lot of her time working shifts at GrizzCo. 

She did occasionally leave her dirty socks on the kitchen floor, but he supposed he could overlook that. It wasn’t like she was bringing her girlfriend home every weekend. 

So when he came home that afternoon and there was a Squid Sister standing in his kitchen with no Agent 3 to be found, he was more than a little confused - even more so when said Squid Sister started drilling him with questions about his time under the surface, at least the time spent around his fellow agent. He wasn’t sure why it was so important to everyone - even Cap’n Cuttlefish made a big deal out of it, insisting that no one tell Jinx the details of their confrontation.

Something about being afraid of what the truth might do to her, mentally and emotionally. He didn’t see how being dishonest was helpful in any way, personally, but it ultimately wasn’t any of his business.

Marie was _making_ it his business. Begrudgingly, he was stepping into the fray, and he didn’t put up resistance to giving her answers. There was no point in hiding the truth. 

“Agent 3 tried to kill me.” He took a sip from the coffee mug in his hand, hip leaning against the counter, his other arm crossed over his chest. “The circumstance was not good. Her action was not being controlled by her, but subduing it was accomplished.” 

Marie’s expression fell blank as she stared at him, processing through his slightly-broken Inklish, trying to organize and piece together an image in her mind. ‘Her action was not controlled by her?’ She could only throw out wild guesses as to what that meant. When Jinx’s image flashed in her memory, she was drawn to the scar on her face. 

“Do you mean she was being controlled? By something else?” She prompted, slowly pulling out a chair from the kitchen table and settling into it. She had a feeling this was going to be a long story, and she wanted every last detail she could get.

Bernard tapped his claws against the outside of the mug, focusing on the gentle ‘clink’ of the ceramic. “Yes.” 

“What was it?” Marie pressed. 

“Tartar.” 

His one-word answers would have been irritating even if she _wasn’t_ already agitated. Marie took a deep breath and a moment to count backwards from ten, and then she stared at the octoling until he decided to start talking again, communicating in body language that he needed to elaborate. 

With a light sigh, he launched into the whole tale as coherently as he could. He told her about the Deepsea Metro, about the tests and the telephone, the giant blender that almost whisked him and Cap’n Cuttlefish into oblivion - and consequently, how Agent 3 had saved their lives. How he had gone on ahead and then been accosted by the same Agent 3 on the elevator meant to take him to the surface. 

“The ink was odd,” he said, by that point sitting on top of the counter and holding his mug in both hands. “It smell like clean. Too much clean. Burning in the nose. Marina is calling it ‘sanitary’ ink.” 

Transfixed and trying to picture it all in her mind’s eye, Marie just nodded. Gramps had said something similar to that. He did not, however, mention Jinx being _controlled_ by it. She held her tongue for a bit longer, waiting for him to continue.

“I almost lose fight with Agent 3, but she escaped.” He set his coffee mug down and started pantomiming, holding one hand meant to be a sturdy structure and imitating a super jump with the other. “Up and out of elevator. I rescue captain, and then climb up.”

The story only grew more convoluted from there. He talked about an ancient AI, a giant statue that looked like a human, _blended up octolings_ \- honestly, it all sounded like a completely outlandish tale that Marie couldn’t have dreamt up in a million years. The kind of story parents told their kids to keep them out of trouble, like a boogeyman. There she was thinking that DJ Octavio had been a wild ride, but this ordeal seemed equal parts horrifying and fantastical.

“...Just before Pearl is screaming into cannon, here is Agent 3 coming in again. We are having struggle, and almost fall into ocean, but I knock her out before harm can happen.” Bernard took a deep breath, cleared his throat a little, and grabbed his cup - he fell silent once more. 

For all the time she knew Jinx, Marie could barely imagine her being that kind of vicious. She had seen the agent take out Octarians, and while she made a game out of it, it definitely wasn’t something she took pleasure in. She preferred to have fun. Jinx wasn’t violent, she wasn’t a murderer - she was just a sincere, passionate person, maybe a little awkward sometimes, but the last thing she would ever do is attack anyone with the kind of malice Bernard described.

Distantly, she wondered if Jinx could hear them through the bathroom door. She had never been in this apartment before - were the walls thin? She couldn’t decide if it would be beneficial or not.

Something churned uncomfortably in the pit of her stomach, knowing that the younger inkling was still locked in there all by herself, nothing but her racing - _spiraling_ thoughts to keep her company. Putting herself into anxiety-filled pits was something Jinx could do alarmingly well.

In the midst of her silent pondering, Agent 8 had already finished his coffee and moved to set the mug in the sink. He didn’t say another word to Marie as he stepped out of the kitchen, down the hall a little ways, and rapped twice - sharply - on the bathroom door. Something in Octarian tumbled out of his mouth and after another moment, seemingly satisfied, he disappeared into his room.

Callie had told her once that she was convinced the octoling was just shy, and that he’d open up more as he spent time on the surface, but from what Marie could tell Bernard really wasn’t much for conversation. He was, however, the first person to be honest with her about the… situation, so she really couldn’t fault him. At least now she had somewhere to start.

She’d been thinking too long. There was an inkling in the bathroom likely dying from anxiety, and she had to attend to that. 

There was something to be said for the fact that it barely took a moment for Marie to figure out how to approach Jinx. Silently, she wandered toward the bathroom door, sitting down outside of it and leaning against the wall. She freed her phone from her pocket and started typing.

\---

_Agent 3 tried to kill me._

Jinx kept hearing those words. They echoed in her head, a sound she couldn’t shake, something she had been trying so hard to cover up with reminders that she was okay - she was fine, she was here with Marie, she just had a headache, she was _fine_ \- for all the good it did her. She had wanted to know the truth, absolutely, but now that it was out there, she regretted ever reaching for it. The longer Bernard went on telling his story, the more something nagged at her, chewed at her insides in a way she had never experienced until then.

The more she heard, the more she _hated_ herself.

What kind of a monster was she? She was supposed to help people, she was supposed to be a force of _good_ in the world. She told herself she was done trying to kill octolings years ago, she even saved Agent 8’s life. When he asked to move in, she thought he felt safe around her - was it just because he wanted to keep an eye on her? To keep his guard up in case she tried again? What was going to happen when more octolings started coming to Inkopolis? Was her instinct going to drive her to go after them too?

Her vision blurred. Breath came more quickly. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, she didn’t want to ever see that look in Marie’s eyes again, she didn’t want the people she loved to be _afraid_ of her--

The buzz of her phone vibrating against the bathroom tile jerked Jinx out of the mental black hole she was falling into. She didn’t realize how tightly her hand had been pressed over her mouth, trying to stifle the choked sounds coming out of her, until she eased up on the pressure and her skin tingled. Trembling fingers reached for the phone and she tried, she tried so hard to collect herself.

Jinx knew, somewhere in the tiny rational corner of her mind, that she should have taken a moment to think before responding to the messages. It was a terrifying thought to entertain, though, when she realized that if she paused she might not get out what she needed to say. Typos be damned, she let herself go, writing out everything that came to mind before she could second-guess any of it.

It spoke volumes that it took so long for Marie to respond. Seconds dragged on and she waited, she waited to be told off, waited for the inevitable accusation that she believed so strongly to be true. 

On the other side of the door, Marie hesitated mid-text. The assumption rubbed her the wrong way - she was an expert at masking her feelings, or at least curbing the worst of the more difficult ones so that others couldn’t see what really bothered her. When Jinx hit the nail on the head like that, the first thing she wanted to do was argue against it - things like ‘that’s presumptuous.’ ‘Bold of you to assume you could hurt me.’ ‘Don’t give yourself too much credit.’

Of course she was hurt. It took her two years to come to terms with the truth of that, to be honest with herself. Being honest with someone else about it, specifically the person who had caused it, was another hurdle entirely. Not letting the idea of being vulnerable get under her skin just added to the challenge. 

Callie would tell her that she cared about Jinx, and that was what made it hurt. Callie would use the ‘L’ word, though - that was a can of worms she refused to open.

Three more minutes passed with no sign of movement from inside the bathroom. 

Another minute or two slipped by, though Marie tried not to keep tabs too closely. 

A shuffle.

A gentle click. 

The door opened slowly, the softest squeak of the hinges accompanying it, and Marie was on her feet before a miserable-looking Jinx, whose head was bowed toward the floor as she white-knuckled the edge of the door. Everything about her was tense, from her lifted shoulders to the fingers curled into the hem of her jersey, and the idol didn’t need to see her face to know she had been crying. Neither of them spoke, neither of them moved - they just stood there, inches apart, both waiting for the other to make the first move.

Jinx swallowed, hard. 

Marie held herself as non-threateningly as she possibly could, any annoyance she’d been building up slipping away at the reminder of just how upsetting this all was for her girlfriend. 

When Jinx finally looked up, she had taken ‘kicked puppy’ to the next level and Marie’s first instinct was to wrap her up in blankets and force her to go take a nap. To hold her and tell her that everything was fine, and that she had done nothing wrong. 

“I don’t w-want to hurt anyone,” she said. Her voice was thick and unsteady. “I didn’t want to h-hurt Bernard.” 

Marie resisted the powerful impulse to reach for her. Not yet. She had to let Jinx come to her, this time. “I know,” she assured.

“I’m scared, Marie.” 

The confession made her hearts ache. “I know.” 

“What if I hurt someone else?” 

“You won’t.” 

Jinx opened her mouth to argue, to point out that she’d almost hurt - physically hurt - her partner. 

“You _won’t._ ” Marie cut her off, gentle but confident. She had to be. One of them had to pretend they knew how the future was going to pan out, with the new development and working out just what the after effects of this ‘sanitary ink’ were going to be. 

Flexing her fingers like she wasn’t sure if it was safe to do so or not, like she didn’t trust herself completely, the younger inkling took a step. Then another. Finally a third, until she could rest her forehead against Marie’s shoulder. Her safe place. The spot she’d always belonged, where she could block out everything else and imagine they were both back in simpler times. 

Still a part of her screamed that she was a monster, that she didn’t deserve it. 

Marie took the opening, arms winding around Jinx and pulling her closer. She rested her cheek against the girl’s temple and held her like she could protect her from her own thoughts. It did not go unnoticed when Jinx curled her fingers into Marie’s shirt and held on for dear life.

“It’s alright,” she murmured. Even she couldn’t decide if it was a platitude or not. “Everything’s alright. We’ll figure it out.” 

They stood there another minute like that. 

“...Can I go to the studio with you?”

There was no hesitation. “Of course.”

\---

Percy was never the type of person to let anything get him down for too long. One of his best qualities was his optimism, his ability to bounce back from any curveballs life wanted to throw at him - according to his mom, anyway - and his brush with Agent 3 had been no different. Sure, Marie had talked her up to the point that he kind of idolized her - and yeah, he definitely felt humbled when he met her for the first time and she started grilling him like fresh calamari, but it was nothing he couldn’t recover from! 

He told himself that Agent 3 had been having a bad day, and that the next time they met it would surely be different. He wore his same bright smile every morning, he still ran recon through Octo Canyon when Marie asked him to, with the promise that he would prove himself to his fellow agent one way or another. Not that there was any rush.

That didn’t stop him from instinctively curling into himself, just a teeny bit, when he spotted Agent 2 and Agent 3 making their way through the square that afternoon. Marie saw him before Jinx did and despite his hesitation, he approached the pair to say hello. 

After how tense everything had seemed in the Canyon last time he saw the two of them together, it was a relief to see Agent 3’s hand tucked safely in Marie’s. 

“Sorry Percy, we can’t stay and chat.” Marie said. “Some things I need to take care of today.” 

“That’s okay! I was just headin’ home!” He held his hands up, a show of no offense taken. “I wanted to say hi, and I hope your day’s going okay!” Though he tried to keep it inconspicuous, his gaze kept flickering over to Agent 3 - he thought he had heard Callie call her Jinx, but he wasn’t positive on that one. 

The older agent noticed, of course, because subtlety was not Percy’s strong point. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “It’s okay. Thanks.” 

Marie glanced at her then, lightly clearing her throat and nodding a bit toward Agent 4. 

Taking a deep breath, Jinx stepped around her partner and offered a tired - but sincere, and apologetic - smile. “Listen, Percy, I uh… I wanted to say I’m sorry for snapping at you the other day.” She offered her free hand. “You seem like a good kid. No hard feelings?” 

Considering it had been the very last thing he expected, Percy’s chest suddenly felt much lighter. He might just have a shot yet at making friends with Agent 3, maybe he could even learn some cool moves from her! The possibilities were endless. Eagerly he took her hand, shaking it perhaps a bit too exuberantly. 

“Of course not, I totally understand! You don’t have to apologize, it’s just so nice to finally meet you, Marie’s told me so much about you, like about that time you took down the--” 

“Percy,” Marie interrupted as gently as she could. “Now’s not a great time to talk about that.” 

“Oh,” he smiled sheepishly. “Right. Sorry! I’ll let you guys get where you’re going, but it was so great to meet you Jinx!” 

Jinx laughed, a small and quiet thing but it was there. “Nice to meet you too, Percy.” 

As they parted ways, Percy found himself with a bit of an extra spring in his step. The afternoon was shaping up to be fantastic, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the Percy interlude at the end there cured some depression. I know it cured mine.


End file.
